It’s where those not racing online will spend most of their time playing. The meat of NASCAR 21: Ignition must be the Career Mode. I could get loose, I could back up the corner for a better exit, and I could race the AI more competitively. I preferred the feedback I received from the wheel over a gamepad, as it felt like I had greater control of what I was doing.
That meant that camera selection, looking around the car, making pit changes, navigating the menus and even pausing the game requires a keyboard on PC or a controller on console nearby at all times. The paddle shifters worked, but you couldn’t shift down into neutral naturally, you needed to hit the neutral button, making reversing a chore. During my testing, only two buttons did anything, one shut off the engine (and I couldn’t turn it back on) while the other put the gearbox straight into neutral. The Fanatec wheel itself felt great in the hands, but unfortunately, the buttons can’t be mapped. While the pedals really only worked from about halfway pushed down to all the way, they were useable – apart from the clutch pedal which isn’t functional here. My favorite racing came using my Fanatec system, a ClubSport Wheel Base V2.5 with a Universal Wheel Hub and ClubSport V3 Inverted Pedals. It was like playing with an oversized joystick, so I quickly swapped it out for a PlayStation controller. Using a Logitech G29, the wheel felt like it was set to 100 degrees of rotation with the stiffest centering spring I’ve ever felt before. In its current state, you can find a good feeling on a controller and on certain wheels, but sadly not all wheels, however, as I had a drastically different experience between Logitech and Fanatec devices. The way the car handles is probably the most important aspect of it all. Quite a shame, then, that there is zero functionality besides being there.
The garages are accurately modelled too and can be navigated in a practice session. If you turn on ‘Complex Damage,’ your tire will pop should you make contact with a wall. The damage is at least present – not my favorite, but it can be debilitating in the right setting. At Daytona and Homestead, I feel like I could count every single blade of grass in the ballfield.Įvery chartered car from the 2021 season is in the game. Speaking of Sonoma, there are little dusty patches that swoosh away when you drive over them. If you give it too much throttle on corner exit at Sonoma, you might spin out. Martinsville lends itself to the bump and run and performs better when running the low line. Different tracks drive differently, and that’s a big win. If the race is at Phoenix, it’s harder to drive and keep the car underneath. When I’m at Las Vegas, it’s about momentum. When I’m at Daytona, it’s about the draft. What we got in the Dev Diaries wasn’t just BS, it was legitimately manufactured with the details in mind. From the simplest concepts, such as track geometry to the complexity of the smaller, finer details. Every track looks, feels and drives as you’d expect. One main takeaway from playing the latest officially-endorsed NASCAR game is the attention to detail. It’s just that there’s a narrow window thanks to glitches, incomprehensible logic and missing features. When it works right, it might be some of the most fun racing I’ve had on a NASCAR video game in years, maybe even ever. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, NASCAR 21: Ignition doesn’t seem to be a vision realized. NASCAR 21: Ignition is the first in a line of reconstructed games, building from the ground up with the aim of bringing the fun and enjoyment back to the NASCAR gaming-specific franchise that’s seemingly been missing for the last decade or so.
Now my primary focus is on video games again, so the lead up to the next NASCAR game has brought me back to those childhood vibes. That has somewhat died off in my older age, as real-life got ahead of things and the gaming had to take a back seat. As a lifelong NASCAR fan, every year on NASCAR game release day growing up was a holiday in my household.