NASCAR '14

"On race day, ... You don't do it for the press, for the girls, for the fame, ... Well, maybe for the girls. Definitely not for the press." - Tony Stewart

NASCAR '14 is a simulation racing game based on the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. It was the successor to NASCAR The Game: Inside Line and NASCAR The Game: 2013, releasing to a varied reception by fans and critics, who complained of the similarity between the game and past installments, as well as modest performance on consoles with a litany of bugs.

After a few minor updates to the game and multiple DLC releases, the game ultimately fell into obscurity when Dusenberry Martin Racing (704 Games) bought the NASCAR license from Eutechnyx, delisting all the DLC and releasing NASCAR '15.

Sub-Page#

Bugs

Unused Drivers#

Justin Allgaier
In TEXT0500.LDA, Justin Allgaier and his hometown of Riverton Illinois are mentioned in Index 4187 and 4188 respectively.
2014 was Allgaier's debut cup series season, driving the #51 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet full time. Assumedly, he was meant to be added but was omitted due to a lack of licensing, appearing in '15 a year later.

Unused 2013 Paint Schemes#

To do: Drivers listed to be included in multiple Highlights have their list unfinished. Someone please go in, list and/or check that all of these drivers are included. With the abundance of leftover 2013 paint schemes in highlight mode, the possibility of the entire lineup being left over in the files is extremely likely. Someone please datamine. If that assumption is found to be true, please put the completely unused drivers in their own section / sub-page of the article, instead of awkwardly grouping them with the drivers visible in the 2013 highlights.

Generic and 2013 Highlight-Mode Only Opponents#

NASCAR '14's highlight mode contained challenges from the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. In these highlights, Eutechnyx would replace drivers who changed teams or lacked the proper licensing (such as Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordon, and Martin Truex Jr.) with generic stand-ins simply referred to as "Driver".

Generic Chevrolet Driver	Generic Ford Driver	Generic Toyota Driver

In the majority of highlights available from the 2013 season, at least one unused driver is mistakenly included in a highlight. Mostly only being seen using the game's included photo mode.

Driver	Image	Description	Appears In
Regan Smith 51 Guy Roofing Chevrolet		In Cutting Corners, Regan can easily be reached in 11th place before failing the challenge. Regan is even visible in the instructional video2 before the Highlight starts.	Cutting Corners
Kurt Busch 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet		In Stealing Jimmie's Thunder, Kurt Busch can be seen quite far behind the pack drafting with a few others. Curiously, in Closing In, Kurt is named in the instructional video3 as being in front of the player, yet replaced by a Chevrolet stand in.	Stealing Jimmie's Thunder
Dave Blaney 7 Sany Chevrolet		In Logano To The Lead, Blaney can be found a bit behind from where the player is. Blaney can be reached before failing the Highlight.	Logano To The Lead
Juan Pablo Montoya 42 Target Chevrolet		Behind Blaney, Montoya can also only be found in Logano To The Lead. Montoya can also be reached before failing the Highlight.	Logano To The Lead
Casey Mears 13 Geico Ford		Casey Mears appears in most highlights, but in a Ford, which he drove in 2013, as opposed to a Chevrolet or just as a stand-in.	Cutting Corners Taking Advantage Front Row Finish
Josh Wise 35 Blockbuster Video Ford		Included in nearly every challenge, Josh Wise can be seen far behind the pack.	Stealing Jimmie's Thunder Front Row Finish(?)
Austin Dillon 33 Cheerios Chevrolet		Along with Mears and Wise, Dillon is included in many highlights in his part time RCR #33.	Stealing Jimmie's Thunder Front Row Finish
Travis Kvapil 93 Burger King Toyota		The first of the BK Racing twins, Kvapil can usually be seen far behind the pack.	Cutting Corners Taking Advantage Front Row Finish
David Reutimann 83 Burger King Toyota		The second of the BK Racing twins, Reutimann can usually be seen far behind the pack, except in Taking Advantage, in which Reutimann can be seen driving onto pit road.	Taking Advantage The Icing On The Cake

Unused Highlights#

In COMMENTARY.SND there are eight unused voice clips of four unused Highlights. Three Highlights are taken from the NASCAR The Game: 2013 DLC, with a fourth being (assumedly) completely original.
All were presumably removed specifically due to the driver in the highlight switching teams, leading to Eutechnyx not using them due to licensing concerns.

Unused Tutorial Highlight Commentary#

In COMMENTARY.SND, there are two sets of Commentaries for Highlights. Intro, and InGame. Intro goes used in the menus, while InGame goes unused. InGame reads the exact Highlight description, and it's unknown whether InGame would have been used when choosing a Highlight, or during the tutorial videos before a Highlight.

Leftovers#

NASCAR '14 has too much leftover. Dating all the way back to NASCAR 2011: The Game. Most of these are via leftover strings in the TEXT0500.LDA file.

NASCAR The Game: Inside Line Opening#

YouTube video

Inside the videos folder of NASCAR '14 in all releases, a 720p video of the opening for NASCAR The Game: Inside Line is leftover.
===NASCAR 2011: The Game roster, teams, and fast facts=== Index 255 - 348 is housed entirely of drivers, and teams which were either considered or added to NASCAR 2011: The Game.
From index 1609 - 1671, fast facts about drivers and tracks are included.
===NASCAR 2011: The Game Unused Tracks=== Index 357 - 421 are entries for NASCAR Tracks considered or added to NASCAR 2011: The Game.
Six tracks went unused, with their only remnants being strings.

These tracks being included are evidence that at one point, NASCAR 2011: The Game was meant to include the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series properly in the game, instead of just including a few drivers from said series in the cup roster.

Driver Setups#

In NASCAR The Game: Inside Line, you could purchase certain drivers actual race setups from the points shop for use in single race or career. As the points shop was removed, Index 3660 - 3681 go unused.

To do: cross check these with 2013 the game to make sure the descriptions are accurate.

Cheat Code#

In the "Enter Code" button under the "Options" menu, typing out the code GIVEMEWONGA⁴⁵ gives the player 1 million credits in career mode.
Code can be used Infinitely.

Revisional Differences#

Update 1.02⁶⁷#

Released July 8, 2014. Substantial changes were made to the game, including finishing the full Cup roster.

Roster Updates#

• Added Alex Bowman (#23 BK Racing), Cole Whitt (#26 BK Racing), Michael Waltrip (#66 Michael Waltrip Racing), Ryan Truex (#83 BK Racing), Parker Kligermann (#30 Swan Racing) and JJ Yeley (#44 Team Xtreme Racing).
  • As a result, lower series drivers that were roster stand-ins, such as Ryan Reed and Chase Elliott, weren't cars the AI chose to drive after this update.
• Changed the teams for David Reutimann (from #83 BK Racing to #35 Front Row Racing) and Trevor Bayne. (from #6 Roush Fenway Racing to #21 Wood Brothers Racing).
• Changed the paint scheme for Chase Elliott to his #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, removing the generic JR. Motorsports paint scheme included with the base game.
• Added the 2014 Primary for Brad Keselowski, making it his default paint scheme.
• Removed Travis Kvapil (#93 BK Racing) from the playable roster.

Rules and Championship Format#

• New Chase entry requirements.
• Changed the qualifying format to go from Single Car Qualifying to Group Qualifying.
• Tweaked the Yellow Line Rule at Talladega and Daytona to allow the player more time to give back their position.

Bug Fixes#

• Pitting after rewinding bug fixed.
• Random freezing fixed during general gameplay.
• Correct position shown and correct points given after a race.
• Winning the Highlights Cutting Corners, Taking Advantage and Logano To The Lead are now possible.
• Sponsor decals no longer disappear when being placed on custom paint schemes.
• Rookie stripes no longer disappear off of custom paint schemes.
• Car Jumping after a caution at Bristol resolved.
• Fixed drivers sitting on tracks randomly.
• Fixed lagging throughout the game.
• Retiring during a race to cheat leaderboard times fixed.
• Fixed issue with missing interiors after ending a session in the roof camera.
• Other engines (other than the superspeedway engine which could be selected) are now selectable after purchasing in the R&D menu.
• Fixed issues with sound cutting out.

Miscellaneous#

• AI difficulty tweaked to be closer to what the player chose. The AI now yields further at lower difficulty levels.
• Last names can now be added to the windshield of career cars.
• A toggle for Launch Control is added.
• If the player lost a sponsor for which a vinyl is applied, the player is no longer told to remove it if the vinyl is already removed.

Update 1.03⁸#

To do: Find the exact patch notes. The video used as reference can't fully be trusted, and could also be glossing over certain notes.

Released on July 22, 2014. 1.03 fixed bugs introduced in 1.02 and tweaked the rules and championship format.

Rules and Championship Format#

• The Daytona Duels revert to using Single Car Qualifying.
• 16 Drivers are now eligible for the Chase.

Bug Fixes#

• Models for drivers added in 1.02 will now display properly during victory celebrations. (previously their models were invisible).
• Kansas and Darlington have their laps counted correctly.
• Qualifications for the All Star Race have been fixed.
• Being able to drive as a lower series driver in Single Season is now possible.
• Points calculations made for drivers in the Chase are fixed.
• Fixes for software crashes.
• Driving onto the pit lane at slow speeds will now have the AI properly take control of the car.

Miscellaneous#

• Certain drivers (especially the newly added drivers) had their AI profiles adjusted to be closer to their real life performance.
• Chase Elliott's name is now correctly spelled and displayed on the car. (Originally spelt "Chase Elloitt" ⁹)

Oddities#

Paint Scheme Oddities#

• Most drivers in Highlights use their 2014 schemes even though their original 2013 schemes are available. Although certain drivers such as Danica Patrick, Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, and Matt Kenseth use their 2013 paint schemes correctly, possibly being due to their schemes looking extremely similar from 2013 to 2014.
• David Gilliland's car number is misaligned on both doors.
• Clint Bowyer's 2014 car uses his name as the primary sponsor instead of 5-Hour Energy, but his 2013 paint scheme included in the game has 5-Hour Energy visible, and some tracks (Dover turn 3) have the sponsor visible as well.
• Multiple Paint schemes are credited as running on the day of the 2014 Daytona 500, despite said schemes never running at all. Certain schemes even being reused from the 2013 DLC for Inside Line.

Paul Menard (Reused)	Joe Nemechek (Reused)	Michael McDowell

Revisional Difference Oddities#

• In version 1.01, when Trevor Bayne is included in a 2013 Highlight (for reference, he drove the #21 Wood Brothers car part time in 2013), he drives the #6 Roush Fenway Racing car, despite most drivers who changed teams being completely replaced with a stand in.
  

Trevor in Stealing Jimmie's Thunder.

NTG 2013	NASCAR '14

Other Oddities#

• In Closing In, the Scoring Pylon uses Trevor Bayne's old number font. (despite the associated paint scheme being unavailable and not used in the highlight), placed in 24th.
• In The Icing On The Cake, Paul Menard is mysteriously removed entirely from the Highlight. In the 2013 DLC for Inside Line, he was present. No other driver is removed.

References#