NASCAR Kart Racing

It’s not all about making left turns

Posted 4 years ago By - Marko Djordjevic

The NASCAR season is already under way and EA’s first racing game for the Nintendo Wii comes to us under their Free Style Branding with NASCAR Kart Racing. At first, it might seem that this is just another quick release by EA to capitalize on the Wii market, but in actuality, they have managed to offer a surprisingly enjoyable racing game which will appeal to both fans of the sport and those who have grown up with the Mario Kart series.


Kart Racing games are fairly straightforward. You select a cartoony character and try your best to win races various outlandish courses. NASCAR Kart Racing offers you the ability to select from twelve real-life NASCAR drivers or ten ‘Outsiders’ which you can unlock. The NASCAR drivers will be recognizable to most fans of the sport, so picking one that you know should not be hard.

There are three main game modes in NASCAR Kart Racing. You can quickly jump into Quick Race and battle on one of the twelve available courses, including a few real locations like Talladega and Dover but there are also plenty of original creations. If you’re not looking to race but want to try out some mini-games, you can take a go at the Special Events section which contains 4 different events. To truly enjoy both Quick Race and Special Events you will need to play through Championship to unlock all of the Outsider Drivers, Events and Courses.

Championship has you going through twelve series in order to become the greatest NASCAR Driver in the United States. If you follow NASCAR, you’ll know that while it is an individual sport, racers do tend to work together to help each other out; this is also the case in Championship.


Before every series you will select your Driver and a Partner. Each racer has stats based on four skills: sliding, zone, grinding and boosting. There is no right or wrong pairing for drivers, but your strategy will vary depending on which of the four traits you want to focus on.

In each of the twelve series, you and your partner will have to face off against a specific pair, called rivals. Typically these rivals are considered the best at that specific series so you should have your hands full in each race. In order to advance through Championship, not only must you finish amongst the top, you need to ensure that you beat your rivals at the same time.
As with all Kart racing games, there are tons of power-ups available for your disposal. Some will give you boost, others will place ad-boards of you in front of the other racers to distract them and there are even Free Pass and Oil Slicks that can help you win your races. A cool aspect added to this game that is called ‘In the Zone’. In NASCAR and most racing events, drafting is an important aspect of the sport. Here, when you and your partner are close to each other, you enter ‘The Zone’ and begin to grow your boost meters. Once you’ve filled up your bar(s), you can ‘slingshot’ each other to increase your speed. If you can max this out and continue to share this draft, you can really take a huge lead and win any race.

Championship Mode is a great feature but it does have some minor quips to it. For starters, you will be racing a lot of the same courses over and over again. Considering you have twelve series and in each one you typically race four courses, you will see the same ones again and again. The second issue I had was that you can’t save your progress mid-series. If you start one, you’ll need to finish it completely otherwise you will have to start over. The last set-back, which is actually normal for games like this is that Rubber-band AI is really evident. Most of the time the top four racers will be you, your partner and the two rivals and it switches up a lot. With these set-backs aside, those looking for a fun alternative to racing games on the Wii will be satisfied with what is offered here.


The cartoony graphics associated with most Kart games is evident here. All of your racers, both real and imaginary are drawn pretty well. On the course, you won’t see any faces as the game ensures that all racers think of safety and wear helmets. The karts, including the ‘outsiders’, contain a good chunk of sponsors you would expect for these drivers. Even the courses have advertising boards around which give the game the true NASCAR experience.

In regards to the courses, all of them are really well done with plenty of detail available from race level. When racing in the Junkyard, you will drive underneath tractor beams and through pipes while the real courses all have pit row filled with the team’s trailers. The environments outside of the courses lack much detail as the grandstands and other objects look very generic. Also, the draw distance is also a bit weak. If you’re at the back of the pack, only the really close racers will look decent. If you try to peer further ahead, you’ll notice that the other karts look very generic and sometimes it is hard to tell them apart.

Sound is the weakest part of NASCAR Kart Racing. Surprising for EA is that the game does not feature a soundtrack from today’s hot bands, instead going the route of featuring strictly instrumental music. The music isn’t bad as it has a very ‘industrial’ sound, but most people won’t pay much attention to it. The game lacks any voice-over. Instead, all speech is done through text with generic mumbling sounds to replace what would actually be said.

On the course, there is some effort put into having you and the other racers chat as they would in real life. You’ll have radio static but again, only a few real words are heard. The effects from the power-ups and the ‘start your engines’ intro before each race are nice but still fail to put the game over the top in the sound department.


Completing the twelve series in Championship will take you a while and necessary to unlock all of the game’s drivers, courses and other options. There is no online play available here but the game can still be enjoyed with up to four players racing each other in a single living room. A nice added bonus is that all three modes can be played with up to four people. If you call over a friend, you two can complete the Championship together, while the Special Events will see you battle your friends in the four various race types.

Upon first inspection, I thought that NASCAR Kart Racing would be just another quick rush to capitalize the success of the Wii. In truth, this is a fun game that can be enjoyed by a large spectrum of people. Even if you are not a fan of NASCAR, the large selection of racers and twelve very different courses available will satisfy any fan of Kart and generic racing games. You might be disappointed that you’ll have to unlock most of the game, but thanks in part to the game’s relatively easy pick-up and play feel, it won’t take you long to master all of the circuits.

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