If you like off-road circuit racing, there’s a surprising title on its way this month from Monster Games, the former developer of the NASCAR Heat series.
Tony Stewart’s Sprint Car Racing, developed in partnership with the three-time NASCAR Cup winner himself, takes you into the world of sprint cars. Sprint cars are small vehicles almost like buggies, with enormous engines producing up to 900hp. Designed to drift around dirt ovals, sprint cars can have a power-to-weight ratio higher than an F1 car.
The game features three classes of sprint cars. The first two — 410ci Winged Sprint Cars and TQ Midgets — hail from the AllStar Circuit of Champions (ASCoC), a racing sanctioning body that Stewart himself has owned since 2015. You’ll also get to race the less powerful 305ci Wingless Sprint Cars. There’s also 24 circuits from across the USA, ranging from tiny rural ovals to grand stadium venues, although all are fictional.
A career mode takes the introductory dirt sections from the last two NASCAR Heat games and completely fleshes it out into a career mode of its own. You start out as a relative unknown in TQ Midgets — buggies that are three quarters the size of a regular sprint car — before you progress through the ranks to the higher tiers of sprint car racing. You can modify and upgrade your car, fine-tune its handling, and sign lucrative contracts with sponsors on your way to ASCoC.
In addition to the game’s career mode, there’s an online mode available too. This can feature up to 25 players, with both custom lobbies and weekly tournaments. You can also stay local, with a two-player split-screen mode.
Stewart comments:
“I’m really excited to partner with Monster Games on this opportunity. The team has done a great job of capturing the sport, and putting it in the hands of any fan who wants to pick up the game and have a lot of fun playing it. With the quick-hitting action of sprint car racing, the qualifying, the heat races, and all events leading to the A-main, it’s really the perfect experience for a video game and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
The game will launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 14, priced at $29.99 (€19.99/£24.99). It comes to Steam a week later on February 21. In the meantime, check out the launch trailer below:
Written by Daniel Brady.
