NASCAR Arcade Rush is the next licensed NASCAR video game that will be published by GameMill Entertainment. The game will include a few licensed tracks, but, for now, no licensed drivers. It will be interesting to see what this game becomes as it will obviously be an arcade racer. Will it be more like NASCAR Unleashed/NASCAR Rumble, or will there be more elements of NASCAR Kart Racing? Either way, it is a new NASCAR video game, regardless of it being an arcade game.

There was not a replacement to NASCAR 21: Ignition in 2022, but there was NASCAR Rivals on the Nintendo Switch. Like NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition is NASCAR Heat 5 on the Nintendo Switch, NASCAR Rivals is NASCAR 21: Ignition on the Nintendo Switch. It gives NASCAR games to Nintendo Switch users, but the lack of a true NASCAR 21: Ignition replacement was still glaring on Motorsport Games.

Motorsport Games planned on releasing a separate NASCAR game on the Nintendo Switch in 2022, so they released NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+ exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. It’s basically NASCAR Heat 5 on the Nintendo Switch, and it’s nothing to write home about. With it being on less powerful hardware, it deals with many of the cut corners as the Nintendo Wii versions of the Eutechnyx NASCAR games did.

Where to start with this game. Many people were excited to see NASCAR gaming go to a big budget developer like Motorsport Games. The game would be developed on the powerful Unreal Engine, and people were excited to see what Motorsport Games had.

The game released, and it was awful. It was simply unfinished with a ridiculous amount of game breaking glitches at most tracks. There were even some strange settings problems on the track as well including not being able to turn off steering assist.

The way the AI went about pit strategy was completely broken. Caution flags were completely broken. Whenever a patch was made, it seemed there was another issue.

Unfortunately, this was the last main line console NASCAR game to be released as of this writing. NASCAR gaming has probably never hit a lower low than this game, and there is no timetable for when another NASCAR game will be released. Even though there was some content that was put out following this game.

As Motorsport Games got set to develop the first NASCAR game that would eventually end up on the ninth console generation, 704 Games hit copy and paste on NASCAR Heat 5. It is literally a reskinned NASCAR Heat 4 with updated rosters. However, this game is still on the minds of many to this day, and that is because of its terrible successor.

Likely the best of the four NASCAR games that 704 Games and Monster Games worked on together, NASCAR Heat 4 once again built a little bit more on the foundation NASCAR Heat 3 laid, particularly in the single player modes.

The career mode allowed players to start in any series they wanted among Cup, Xfinity, Trucks or the fictional Xtreme Dirt Tour. In single season mode, players now had the option to create a custom schedule. This included being able to run with or without the playoffs and included tracks that were Truck and Xfinity Series exclusive.

The game is far from perfect, though. Like the general NASCAR Heat franchise, the online mode left something to be desired. A lot of the community that was on the older NASCAR console games had now moved on to iRacing since it was a more functional online mode.

The game also was criticized once again for physics and the driving model. The same complaints that plagued the previous games. However, it was the best 704 Games and Monster Games had put out there.

Soon thereafter, however, Motorsport Games entered the fray, and it invested in 704 Games. You know where I am going with this.

NASCAR Heat 3 continued to build from NASCAR Heat 2 with the addition of a fictional dirt series similar to NASCAR Dirt to Daytona. In addition, the career mode also allowed players to begin owning their own team in addition to just being a driver. Again, the driving model and physics were criticized along with the online mode, but it was beginning to regain some of the depth that many felt was lost following the “Golden Age” of NASCAR gaming.

NASCAR Rush is the second mobile game that 704 Games released, and it is NASCAR’s version of an “endless runner.” A player controls a car and swipes left or right to avoid traffic that you come upon. A pretty simple concept, but “endless runner” games were quite popular in 2010s. NASCAR is a sport that translates easily to that, so 704 Games likely thought, why not?

NASCAR Heat 2 was a big improvement on NASCAR Heat: Evolution. The physics were improved, even though the driving model was still pretty heavily criticized. It also included the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series, and it was the first game to do so since NASCAR 09. As a result, the career mode is similar to NASCAR Dirt to Daytona with drivers working their way up from the Truck Series all the way up to the Cup Series.

NASCAR Heat Mobile was the first mobile game that DMI, which changed its name to 704 Games, released. It was available on IOS and Android, and it essentially is like a reworked career mode. It’s not too dissimilar of a concept to Eutechnyx mobile game NASCAR: Red Line, but it does include a home world similar to most mobile games. Again, a product of this current mobile game generation.