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| 98. NASCAR Racing 4 (2001, Windows 98) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/17/2026, 11:20pm PDT | ||||
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| 98. NASCAR Racing 4
Creator: Papyrus Year: 1991 Platforms: Windows 98 Mobygames link Available through: My Abandonware My father was a car guy, I went a different way but at his funeral I spoke with several members of his car club. Of which he was the president, at one point. There isn't a lot of difference between people fixing, maintaining, acquiring and selling classic cars and people like his kid doing the same for arcade games. I also learned, because I was somehow oblivious to this for 47 years, that he was the most persistently sarcastic ball-breaker any of them had ever known, apparently to every single person in the world except for me, his oldest son. Watkins Glen is a track near us, we were 80 miles from it. He took the family to the track for NASCAR races a few times when I was growing up. It was hot, humid and the nature of NASCAR racing, at least on that track, is that you definitely cannot see all the cars at all the times. I am trying to think of another sport that by its nature, your in-person experience has you missing out on all the action except for a few seconds every few minutes as the competitors speed by at 200mph? Imagine if in prize fighting, the two guys beat the hell from each other in the locker room and then came out to the ring proper for the last 20 seconds of each round. But as I said, we went different ways - he has never watched over someone's shoulder as they completed Dragon's Lair on a single quarter. We tried to get him different racing games, but NASCAR Racing 4 was his jam. I would buy him racing games over Steam and send them to him. Then I would be the one to install them when I flew back home. I got him whatever the top of the line steering wheel + pedals and shifter combo was. Mad Catz maybe? He had it bolted to his desk in his office, imagine that, having all these peripherals that worked for a single game! We maybe didn't take that much different paths. He knew everything that they were talking about in the game, and to an outsider it mostly sounds like gibberish. But Papyrus got real southerners to record their instructions to the driver in what I assume are accurate voices. My dad would go in and tweak his car. I get it - I spend a few minutes each week tweaking the lineup of my fake baseball team for my online league before sending my manager profile out. I know much, much less about cars than Jerry Whorebach's mom. I am taking my car to a scratch guy on Monday because I sideswiped fucking logs left out on the side of the street I live on. I like and respect that my dad enjoyed NASCAR Racing 4 so much. At one point we got him setup to where his (giant) television in his office that took up the entire basement had a comfy chair for him to play the game with the pretend wheel and shifter, and he could see it on the monitor, or the giant TV, we got him a video card that just sent two signals out via HDMI or whatever. So he'd play it and I'd sit next to him and watch him, or be on the couch and watch him. I try, I do try to learn and respect things I don't know about. You can't craft jokes out of total ignorance, you have to know something to get started. So I would ask him questions about the tracks (more on this in a second) as this version, according to what I have read, is the first to have Daytona. That is cute to me, I don't know why. Golf does it as well, in the research for this series seeing various golf claims boldly claim that they have Pebble Beach and such is amusing. Fun. But... Christ, the options available in NASCAR Racing 4. A summary I just grabbed says You can make adjustments to modify [your] vehicle's aerodynamic balance, mechanical grip, and drivetrain. Whoa whoa whoa drivetrain? I thought these were cars buddy! Sorry, I don't know what any of that shit means. But my dad was in there, adjusting "mechanical grip" for his car. He did say at one point he wasn't sure what effect some of the options had. And he would race. Did you know that you run 200 laps in Daytona for a NASCAR race? He sure did. I would like to say that I watched him play a whole game. I watched as much as I could watch. If I knew I didn't have forever to watch him play, I would have watched him play more. I appreciate everyone that gave me suggestions for racing games: Midnight Club is a great game. Thank you, Jerry. So is Death Rally, Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix, Outrun, Autoduel, Mario Kart, Horizon Chase Turbo, Super Hang-on and many others. They were all competing with a ghost, which is why I picked NASCAR 4. And competing with a ghost is something that racing games actually let you do now, so I guess this all fits. My brother sold the racing setup to another enthusiast earlier this year. Apparently the guy who bought it was gurgling in pleasure to get it at a fair price. I am glad we got the old man the good stuff. For the first several years of having a computer, he did the same for my brother and me.  |
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The 100 Greatest Video Games of All-Time NT by 06/16/2026, 10:56pm PDT  Re: The 100 Greatest Video Games of All-Time by 06/16/2026, 11:27pm PDT Finally the definitive, objectively true, list NT by Yesterday, 2:56pm PDT My middle name was going to be "Objective" before by Yesterday, 5:30pm PDT 100. Scorched Earth (1991, DOS) by 06/16/2026, 11:28pm PDT 99. Mine Storm (1982, Vectrex) by 06/17/2026, 10:26am PDT Yeah, no emulator gets that iconic vector look right. by 06/17/2026, 1:04pm PDT It will appear later in the list! by 06/17/2026, 1:30pm PDT 98. NASCAR Racing 4 (2001, Windows 98) by 06/17/2026, 11:20pm PDT A phenomenal choice. by Yesterday, 5:46am PDT Puppygames made a version of that: by Yesterday, 5:59pm PDT Dammit! That was supposed to be a reply to the paradroid post. NT by Yesterday, 6:00pm PDT 97. Paradroid (1985, Commodore 64) by Yesterday, 5:29pm PDT |
