NASCAR 06: Total Team Control Review

EA and Tiburon are back for another year of NASCAR racing and their 2006 effort is one of the best yet. Pretty much everything that was included in 2005 is back and even more polished this time around. The big new feature for 2006 is that you can now switch back and forth between teammates and the goal here is to strive for team unity and strength as much as individual accomplishment. It works surprisingly well and the end result is something that NASCAR and race fans in general will love.

Features and Modes

Not too much has really changed from last year as far as features and modes go, which is slightly disappointing. Everything is tweaked slightly because of the new team control aspect of the game, but for the most part this is a lot of the same stuff we did last year. The Chase for the Cup, Fight to the Top, race now, and online modes are all back and virtually unchanged. The biggest difference is that the Featherlite Modified Series has been replaced by the NASCAR Whelen circuit (different cars but still the minor leagues). The Nextel, Busch (called the National Series in the game), and Craftsman Truck series are all back. All of the tracks from the Nextel Cup series are present and accounted for and there are also a bunch of smaller tracks you’ll get to race on in the Whelen circuit that have a very different feel than the super speedways which is nice. Other features that debuted last year such as the rival/ally and hero/villain stuff are all back as well. Check out my review of NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup for details on all of these features and modes.

Total Team Control

While things may look the same on the outside, underneath all of these modes is the intense focus on total team control and this new addition really does change how you play the game. The biggest change is that you can now instantly jump into any of your teammates’ cars. This means you can drive your main character to the front of the pack and then switch back to someone else and bring them to the front as well and so on and so forth. You can also give orders to your teammates to do things such as block for you or help you draft with a simple flick of the right control stick. You can also issue voice commands with a headset, which works fairly well as long as you are careful about what you say. The hero/villain and ally/rival features now apply to your entire team instead of just you as an individual now, so you really have to be mindful of how you drive and what you do if you want to be popular with the fans and not have a whole lineup of enemies trying to destroy you and your entire team every time you go out on the track.

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