The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock-car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 6, 2018. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.
NASCAR is best known for the NASCAR Cup Series, the top racing series organized by the sanctioning body. Cup Series cars are unique in automobile racing, where their engines are powerful enough to reach speeds of over 200 mph (320 km/h), but their weight coupled with a relatively simple aerodynamic package (based on the body styles of cars currently available for retail sale in the United States) make for poor handling. The bodies and chassis of the cars are strictly regulated to ensure parity, and electronics are traditionally spartan in nature. The cars represented in the Gran Turismo series are based on the Cup Series cars.
Major races on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar include the Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 (formerly Pepsi 400) at the Daytona International Speedway and the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (replaced with a race on the road course between 2021 to 2023). NASCAR events are raced mostly at American oval tracks, but road course races (such as the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway) and, on special occasions, events at foreign locations (such as exhibition events at Suzuka Circuit East and Twin Ring Motegi Super Speedway in the late 90s), are also occasionally held.
Vehicles in Gran Turismo[]
Event Races in Gran Turismo[]
- NASCAR Series (GT5)
- Jeff Gordon NASCAR School (GT5)
- Gran Turismo NASCAR Cup (GT6)
Trivia[]
The 2008/2009-specification cars as it appeared on the GT5 E3 2009 trailer. Note the #55 NAPA Michael Waltrip car on the left and the rear wings on the car.
- Prerelease trailers of Gran Turismo 5 featured the 2008/2009-specification cars with the sports car-style rear wings, which was replaced by traditional spoilers midway thru the 2010 Sprint Cup season due to fan complaints and safety concerns as it was blamed for several backflip accidents. These trailers also feature a removed driver, Michael Waltrip (driving the #55 NAPA Toyota Camry in the 2008 livery), due to Waltrip's retirement from racing.
- Additionally, none of these feature any Ford cars; only four Chevrolet and two Toyota drivers, as well as several alternate paint jobs for them (including what appears to be 2008 paint schemes for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.), are featured.
- Database files for the PSP game mentions "NASCAR Demo Type A" (with internal name nascar_demo_a_xx), "NASCAR Demo Type B" (nascar_demo_b_xx), "NASCAR Demo Type C" (nascar_demo_c_xx), and "NASCAR Demo Type D" (nascar_demo_d_xx), which represents four of the six cars shown on these early trailers.[1] This was due to the PSP game being developed concurrently with GT5, which also relates to the GT5 teaser (that also includes the 2009 NASCAR cars) included at the end of the PSP game's ending credits.
- Additionally, none of these feature any Ford cars; only four Chevrolet and two Toyota drivers, as well as several alternate paint jobs for them (including what appears to be 2008 paint schemes for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.), are featured.
An advertisement featuring Bill Elliott's #9 Dodge Intrepid as it appears in GT4 in Infineon Raceway.
- Although Dodge participated in NASCAR until 2012, no Dodge NASCAR Cup Series cars were featured in any of the PlayStation 3-era games. This might be due to absence of Team Penske, who was the last major team to run Dodge in the series by 2010.
- An advertisement featuring Bill Elliott's 2001 #9 Dodge Intrepid can be spotted at Infineon Raceway in GT4, Tourist Trophy, and GTPSP. However. Elliott himself never appeared in the games, as he had retired from full-time racing after 2003.
- Additionally, the same track also features the Dodge/Save Mart 350 logo on the flagman's stand.
- Every NASCAR car in the PS3-era games is internally named in the "nascar_car_number_year" format. For instance, the 2011 Jeff Gordon ♯24 Drive to End Hunger CHEVROLET IMPALA is named "nascar_impala_24_11".
- For the Chevrolet SS-based cars, the car portion is named "chevrolet_ss" instead of "ss", likely to make the name more descriptive.
- In GT6, only 2013 NASCAR cars are available from the dealerships, while the 2010 and 2011 ones are only available from the NASCAR section of Recommended Cars.
- Due to alcohol advertising regulations, the Coors Light Pole Award decal on each NASCARs that feature it are blurred out.
- This also applies to the "Coors Brewing Company 21 Means 21" version of the decal, which advertises a corporate anti-underage drinking initiative; NASCAR drivers under 21 carry the sticker if they received the award. The only case where the "21 Means 21" sticker is used (and blurred out) is on Joey Logano's 2010 car (including the GameStop version of the car), as Logano was 20 years old in 2010.
- If paused closely, the Coors Light Pole Award decal can be found uncensored on the cars within the E3 2009 trailer. These decals are also uncensored in the kiosk demo build, as well on pre-release pictures revealing the 2010 NASCAR cars.
The #6 Valvoline Mark Martin car as the racing modification for the Ford Taurus SHO '99 in GT2.
- In Gran Turismo 2, the racing modification for the Ford Taurus SHO '99 is based on Mark Martin's #6 Valvoline-sponsored car used in the 1999 Winston Cup Series season, although it features working headlights and taillights as well as incorrect rear pillar windows. This was changed to feature a generic livery (but still featuring a stock car body) for the Greatest Hits and PAL versions.
- Coincidentally, the album artwork for the game's soundtrack (released in Japan) features a background of a Robert Yates Racing's Havoline-sponsored stock car.
- A licensing credit for Danica Patrick and her sponsor, GoDaddy, is listed on Gran Turismo 6's licensor credits, despite not appearing in the game.[2]
- NASCAR is mentioned on Gran Turismo Sport's ending credits, although no NASCAR content appears there. (Currently, iRacing has the rights to create annual NASCAR console games, however, officially licensed NASCAR content is included in other titles such as Forza Motorsport and Real Racing 3, the latter on an annual event basis, since 2015).
- In Watkins Glen International in GT7, the 2017-2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series logo can be found behind the flagman's stand.
- In relation to the GT Academy program, the 2014 U.S. winner Nicolas Hammann started four road course races in the then-NASCAR Xfinity Series for Mike Harmon Racing in 2016, 2017, and 2019.
Notes[]
- ↑ Gran Turismo (PlayStation Portable)/Cars on The Cutting Room Floor
- ↑ GT6 licensing credits: "The Danica Patrick, name, likeness and signature, the Stewart-Haas Racing™ logo and the #10™ GoDaddy.com race car are trademarks of Stewart-Haas Racing and are used under license. © 2013 GoDaddy.com, LLC".
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