NASCAR Thunder 2003

A Close Shave

* **Developer(s):** EA Sports, Budcat Creations, Image Space Incorporated (PC).
* **Publisher(s):** Electronic Arts.
* **Platform(s):**
	+ Playstation 2
	+ Gamecube
	+ Windows/PC
	+ Xbox,
	+ Playstation
* **Release Date(s):**
	+ North America: September 19/29, October 16, 2002
* **Genre(s):** Sim racing.
* **Mode(s):** Single-player, multiplayer, online multiplayer.

**NASCAR Thunder 2003** is the fifth edition of the EA Sports' NASCAR racing simulator series. Developed by EA Sports and Budcat Creations and published by Electronic Arts, it was released for PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube on September 19, 2002, then for PlayStation 2 on September 29 and for PC on October 16. The product features Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the cover. It was the first time the NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award recipient was featured on the cover, although he did not win the award for the first time until the following year. Dale Earnhardt appeared in the game as a driver as a result of entering his name as a Create-A-Car driver's name; he did not appear in the previous game due to his death. He appeared as a legend in subsequent games.

## Game Modes

### Quick Race

* **This simply allows up to four players to participate on any track and race with a specified amount of settings. After the race ends, the game returns to the main menu.**

### Career Mode

* Thi**s the most involving mode of the game. Returning from NASCAR Thunder 2002, it places the player in control of a custom Winston Cup driver, who must manage pit crew, sponsorship and research and development for 20 seasons.**

### Season Mode

* **Although Season Mode, like Career Mode, allows the player to play through 20 seasons, it is essentially the Quick Race mode with season standings. Unlike career mode, which starts the player with inferior equipment and pit crew, they are equal to the AI's from the start. Players have a choice to play as either existing or custom drivers, and the settings are completely customizable, unlike the limited options in Career Mode. To achieve multiplayer compatibility, it not only decreases the amount of AI drivers in a race while also randomizing them, meaning only a handful of drivers end up participating in the entire season. However, like in Quick Race, they can be disabled for a 2–4 player competition.**

### Thunder License

* **The time attack mode of the game; basically a tutorial and time trial of how to race across the included tracks.**

### Lightning Challenges

* **These are playable re-enactments of Winston Cup races from 1999, 2000, 2001, and the 1st part of 2002. These challenges are played on all three difficulty levels. The drivers tell the players about what happened to them in the race. The player then has the chance to re-enact or alter history according to the particular scenario's requirement.**

## List of drivers

This section only lists what drivers are in NT2003. Go to the drivers list page to see pictures of every driver there.

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## List of tracks

This section only lists what tracks are in NT2003. Go to the tracks list page to see pictures of every track.

\*Fictional

## Trivia

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## See also

* *NT2003 Tracks list*
* *NT2003's Wikipedia page*