I’ve played this game a lot on both ps2 and Xbox, and here are some observations that I’ve made that nobody else ever has: 1.) Share draft is pretty useless unless you want to gain ally points. The draft still works if you pull up behind a car, and in some ways is better for superspeedways because you can actually get to their bumper and bump draft if you don’t share the draft. 2.) the AI in this game is actually really really good, but there are two key flaws. First, they will always block you (rival or not) unless you’re an ally, even if they’re slower and 10 laps down. Second, pit strategy is inferior to them, allowing you to “steal” wins by just taking no tires on the last stop. 3.) Rivals won’t start aggressively blocking you until they reach -40, won’t start bumping you until they reach -60, and won’t start trying to wreck you until they reach -80. Also, every clean pass you make on a driver gains you +2 ally points (which is honestly not enough). 4.) In my opinion, the game is far superior on Xbox. You can play much smoother with Microsoft controller shipped with the Xbox, there is more save space on Xbox, and the graphics are better overall. I know this review is a few years old now, but it’s truly one of my favorite NASCAR games to date. I wish I could mod this game. There is so much I would love to add to make it more complete.
This game is the best! At one point I was so good at it, I simply ran random races with the default setup, and lap the field. even on legend difficulty. Career mode, was overkill, had an advantage of multiple laps, cars maxed out, and more than 500 wins and 18 championships. IT WAS AWESOME!
start on rookie and like I did and work up the diffcuilty scale as your car gets better. tips for carrer mode tip 1 after the 500 fire your whole crew there will be bettter ones. tip 2 on superspeedways set the tire pressure at 30 psi and the front springs to 5% and rear 100% at 3.0 wedge the tighter the car the higher speed keep up. tip 3 only sign sponsors that you know you can get on a weekly basses. tip 4 ALWAYS DO THE QUICKEST SPEED FOR SHOP UPGRADES. tip 5 ALWAYS OVERHAUL IF IT IMPROVES THE PARTS ABILITY, so lets say its tire wear is 56 and if your damage is 94 but you just got a shop upgrade to increase the tire wear overhaul will allow the beneift to be put in the part of the car that's already built. Tip 6 always build chassis for 9 races at 27/36 this is a good start to get fresh equipment for the 500 every year. tip 7 if you can repair/overhaul and build at the same time do it that way you can get fresh equipment when the build is complete meanwhile your current equipment wont be dog shit since you can do both. tip 8 when doing the 500 if set 12 length same for all superspeedways where their is more then one stop take two-tires once your tire wear upgrades come in the car just do fuel only and then a 2 tire strat. tip 9 always do the duel after qualifying for the 500. thats all i can think of at the moment I will add more in reply if need be
I liked 04 for the chassis,engine building among many other things..I still play my original Xbox every day.Roller coaster tycoon, leisure suit Larry,Playboy mansion,Tiger Woods 03-05,MVP baseball 05, NBA 2k5, NFL 2k5,Need For Speed Underground 2 and the list goes on and on..All this stuff stands the test of time and fun.
i'd have to agree this is one of the best all time nascar games. the rivalries and challenge modes make it more interesting. career mode for me is a bit much tho...i dont want to keep track of every little part on the car and every person working on the team...overkill. i find it interesting that half the time during the season race intros, the commentators actually say "winston cup", considering its a tobacco sponsor and all the licensing bullshit that usually goes along with that. anyway, it kills me that PS3's will not play this game because PS2's freeze a whole lot and it gets annoying
Thank you for this video. I have been looking for this game for months. I mistook Nascar 07 for this game. I loved the career mode shop and equipment stuff. So good!
I hate to say it Thunder 2003 has the better career mode. 04 puts you at a really unfair disadvantage at the beginning, skill and setup do not matter with a shit car. it's all about luck. Also the cars degrade way too fast as well. 1 Race in with no damage I lost 6% on all my car stats at Daytona of all places. Throw on the completely stupid AI rivalry system makes the career a rage test. 03 was much better at rewarding skill at the beginning.
0:17 Heh, reminds me of the time a few years ago I bought Gran Turismo 3 for a singe dollar at a GameExchange store. And it was one of the best games I played yet.
All you need is to loosen the wedge, and it should help in qualifying. The only thing with it is you will slide a whole lot, but if you maintain control of your car, you'll do fine. That's how I managed to score good positions qualifying and racing on short tracks, road courses and speedways. Remember though, you'll need to be able to control the car otherwise you will slip and slide all over.
This game is definitely on the limit of what is possible with a DualShock. Driving these cars on NR2003 with a wheel was nice, but any time I needed to qualify or finish a race on cremated tires consisted of a lot of tire squeal, burnt rubber and a chorus led by me of "OHCRAP-OHCRAP-OHCRAP-OH-NONONONONOCRAPCRAPAAAAAAAH-oh I got 14th nice".
Bubbaluv 02 Really all you guys have to do is practice and play around with the car’s setup a little to make the car handle better for you and there ya go With a 70+ car I can get top 20s and even top 10 qualifying spots Yes, all in legend difficulty and no assists It’s really all about practice and maybe moving around the setup And don’t use assists, they slow you down
Note: I made that comment two years ago, qualifying is easier than racing for me now. Even had 11 poles one season with only a best finish of 8th (both Talladega races)
Best EA Nascar game made. Rival system can be touchy,but after you learn how to handle the cars ,it's a breeze. Just imagine if 05 Chase For the Cup controlled like this one ...............
I've never picked up this game this shows how much I missed gaming and got a PS2 in 2007 so I'm glad it's the best ea sports has done with nascar which the PS2 didn't even last two or more years
In 2017 as of 9/8 Just inked my video game signature to the ups ford DALE JARRETT'S #88 HOLY SHIT THIS CAREER MODE BEST OF ALL TIME IN ANY NASCAR GAME PERIOD!
Put Lightning McQueen no. 95, Strip Weathers no. 43, Chick Hicks no. 86, Doc (The Fabulous Hudson Hornet no. 51) from Cars Xbox 360 video game and Junior Moon, Louise Nash and River Scott from Cars 3: Driven To Win in a Nascar 2005-2006 video game right away please? I want to see it on a 100% longplay video.
This video is the reason why I stick to Dirt to Daytona. Besides that game is way more fun and you can literally spin out cars extremely easy but it always felt like your car is some sort of armored, savaged, cannot spin out no matter what beast.
yea same here. I reached the max speed for all cars during summer of 2005. Dirt was 135mph, Featherlite was 170mph, Truck was 230mph, and Cup (for some funny reason) was 512mph.
When you do a review of NASCAR Thunder 2003, you should know that's the game where Lightning Challenges debuted. It wasn't NASCAR Thunder 2004 that first did Lightning Challenges.
How many seasons in 3 months??? I loved building up my shop! Once I had everything I needed to build a badass car, wins came easy-er. Race longer races and don't drive like a douche, and the game will be a lot of fun. Cheers!
I got this game for the original Xbox back in 2011, it was so much fun to play! I got an Xbox 360 for christmas one year and that is when the Original Xbox broke down because it was over 10 years old...I heard that you can play Original Xbox games on the 360 so I put in Nascar thunder 2004...you can only play certian original Xbox games...the list that Xbox chose was based on popularity............how...hoow...hoooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww? HOW IS IT NOT POPULAR ON XBOX AND NOW IM STUCK WITH IT BECAUSE THE STORE I BOUGHT IT FROM CLOSED DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! any suggestions on what I should do with it now?
“Your game may be broken and wrong if you have different experiences” Mm no buddy I think YOUR game is broken and wrong.. I mean most of the stuff you mentioned is fixed by good driving, and the save file situation does not happen on Xbox original
Actually I decided that NASCAR thunder 2004 is definitely the greatest NASCAR video game ever created in history, but NASCAR 06 Total Team Control is certainly a close 2nd.
![NASCAR 09 10th Anniversary Review [PS2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Lid391Tdv9w/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ranking EVERY SINGLE NASCAR Game [The Rise]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/e69j2CiP-pI/mqdefault.jpg)
I give Nascar Thunder 2004 a 9/10 for graphics
I give KamikazeGames a 8/10 for video quality.
I’ve played this game a lot on both ps2 and Xbox, and here are some observations that I’ve made that nobody else ever has:
1.) Share draft is pretty useless unless you want to gain ally points. The draft still works if you pull up behind a car, and in some ways is better for superspeedways because you can actually get to their bumper and bump draft if you don’t share the draft.
2.) the AI in this game is actually really really good, but there are two key flaws. First, they will always block you (rival or not) unless you’re an ally, even if they’re slower and 10 laps down. Second, pit strategy is inferior to them, allowing you to “steal” wins by just taking no tires on the last stop.
3.) Rivals won’t start aggressively blocking you until they reach -40, won’t start bumping you until they reach -60, and won’t start trying to wreck you until they reach -80. Also, every clean pass you make on a driver gains you +2 ally points (which is honestly not enough).
4.) In my opinion, the game is far superior on Xbox. You can play much smoother with Microsoft controller shipped with the Xbox, there is more save space on Xbox, and the graphics are better overall.
I know this review is a few years old now, but it’s truly one of my favorite NASCAR games to date. I wish I could mod this game. There is so much I would love to add to make it more complete.
This game is the best!
At one point I was so good at it, I simply ran random races with the default setup, and lap the field. even on legend difficulty.
Career mode, was overkill, had an advantage of multiple laps, cars maxed out, and more than 500 wins and 18 championships. IT WAS AWESOME!
05 has a better carrer mode because of trucks and the fixes for the ally and rival system
Overall 04 is better thoe
I wish I was that good
well im at 12 champioships and 300 wins
I'm at 4 Starts, and a best finish of 27th...
start on rookie and like I did and work up the diffcuilty scale as your car gets better.
tips for carrer mode
tip 1 after the 500 fire your whole crew there will be bettter ones.
tip 2 on superspeedways set the tire pressure at 30 psi and the front springs to 5% and rear 100% at 3.0 wedge the tighter the car the higher speed keep up.
tip 3 only sign sponsors that you know you can get on a weekly basses.
tip 4 ALWAYS DO THE QUICKEST SPEED FOR SHOP UPGRADES.
tip 5 ALWAYS OVERHAUL IF IT IMPROVES THE PARTS ABILITY, so lets say its tire wear is 56 and if your damage is 94 but you just got a shop upgrade to increase the tire wear overhaul will allow the beneift to be put in the part of the car that's already built.
Tip 6 always build chassis for 9 races at 27/36 this is a good start to get fresh equipment for the 500 every year.
tip 7 if you can repair/overhaul and build at the same time do it that way you can get fresh equipment when the build is complete meanwhile your current equipment wont be dog shit since you can do both.
tip 8 when doing the 500 if set 12 length same for all superspeedways where their is more then one stop take two-tires once your tire wear upgrades come in the car just do fuel only and then a 2 tire strat.
tip 9 always do the duel after qualifying for the 500.
thats all i can think of at the moment I will add more in reply if need be
I FOUND OUT WHO WINSTON KELLEY IS! He’s the executive director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame
He also was a pit reporter for MRN until 2020
This game wasn't Mike Skinners last game. NASCAR 08 was. He was in the truck series for e last time in NASCAR 08.
Second best NASCAR game. Just behind NASCAR racing 2003 season.
Bill Elliott was in NTG 2011
Willanta Really?? I used to have this game and must’ve missed it. Which car did he drive??
Parallel Music the 21 car
this was the last good one he was in
dissed my favorite song in the game This Time
I know it's an okay song
10 out of 10. I still play it today. It has so many of things to do even when you have done almost everything
I liked 04 for the chassis,engine building among many other things..I still play my original Xbox every day.Roller coaster tycoon, leisure suit Larry,Playboy mansion,Tiger Woods 03-05,MVP baseball 05, NBA 2k5, NFL 2k5,Need For Speed Underground 2 and the list goes on and on..All this stuff stands the test of time and fun.
i'd have to agree this is one of the best all time nascar games. the rivalries and challenge modes make it more interesting. career mode for me is a bit much tho...i dont want to keep track of every little part on the car and every person working on the team...overkill. i find it interesting that half the time during the season race intros, the commentators actually say "winston cup", considering its a tobacco sponsor and all the licensing bullshit that usually goes along with that. anyway, it kills me that PS3's will not play this game because PS2's freeze a whole lot and it gets annoying
greendayray I was able to play it on mine. It's a 60gb PS3
am I the only one who noticed he spelled soundtrack wrong at 2:11
The sountrack is good
Thank you for this video. I have been looking for this game for months. I mistook Nascar 07 for this game. I loved the career mode shop and equipment stuff. So good!
What song is remix of loser that’s playing in the back round???
thunder03 had both the time trials and thunder challenges. speedzone made its first appearance in this game
I hate to say it Thunder 2003 has the better career mode. 04 puts you at a really unfair disadvantage at the beginning, skill and setup do not matter with a shit car. it's all about luck. Also the cars degrade way too fast as well. 1 Race in with no damage I lost 6% on all my car stats at Daytona of all places. Throw on the completely stupid AI rivalry system makes the career a rage test. 03 was much better at rewarding skill at the beginning.
I can hear Judas Priest's One on One in the background I respect it
What's the song in the video?
0:17 Heh, reminds me of the time a few years ago I bought Gran Turismo 3 for a singe dollar at a GameExchange store. And it was one of the best games I played yet.
And I bought Gran Turismo 4 for $15.00, which hasn't worked NOT. EVEN. ONCE.
gt4 wont run on a slim-line console
AlexTheSniper19 I don't have a slim-line. Just the fatty one.
lightning challenges were in thunder 2003
one time I was on pit road in this game, someone at +100 aily wrecked me.
All you need is to loosen the wedge, and it should help in qualifying. The only thing with it is you will slide a whole lot, but if you maintain control of your car, you'll do fine. That's how I managed to score good positions qualifying and racing on short tracks, road courses and speedways. Remember though, you'll need to be able to control the car otherwise you will slip and slide all over.
This game is definitely on the limit of what is possible with a DualShock. Driving these cars on NR2003 with a wheel was nice, but any time I needed to qualify or finish a race on cremated tires consisted of a lot of tire squeal, burnt rubber and a chorus led by me of "OHCRAP-OHCRAP-OHCRAP-OH-NONONONONOCRAPCRAPAAAAAAAH-oh I got 14th nice".
Is their 4player Split screen?? In this game?? I heard somewhere you can
For ps2 its only 2 player multiplayer. Idk about Xbox tho
4:16 anyone knows whats the music ?
8:30 for me I have trouble quifalying in the top 42 for the game.
Sameee. My car rating is 90+ and i always qualify 43 (except for New Hampshire its always 1st there)
Figured out bow to do *much* better
Bubbaluv 02 Really all you guys have to do is practice and play around with the car’s setup a little to make the car handle better for you and there ya go
With a 70+ car I can get top 20s and even top 10 qualifying spots
Yes, all in legend difficulty and no assists
It’s really all about practice and maybe moving around the setup
And don’t use assists, they slow you down
I'm not ashamed I play on easy
Note: I made that comment two years ago, qualifying is easier than racing for me now. Even had 11 poles one season with only a best finish of 8th (both Talladega races)
Best EA Nascar game made. Rival system can be touchy,but after you learn how to handle the cars ,it's a breeze. Just imagine if 05 Chase For the Cup controlled like this one ...............
This game has some perfect dynamics.
Is it bad that I never played NASCAR Thunder 2004? The only game I played constantly as a child was NASCAR Thunder 2003.
You should play this
I've never picked up this game this shows how much I missed gaming and got a PS2 in 2007 so I'm glad it's the best ea sports has done with nascar which the PS2 didn't even last two or more years
2004 is my 2nd favorite Nascar game. My #1 favorite is 2005
Hey why dont fantasy drivers appear in races for me
I give Nascar Thunder 2004 a 9/10 for Soundtrack
I give the whole Nascar Thunder 2004 game a 10/10
In 2017 as of 9/8 Just inked my video game signature to the ups ford DALE JARRETT'S #88 HOLY SHIT THIS CAREER MODE BEST OF ALL TIME IN ANY NASCAR GAME PERIOD!
I just bought this game today. I'm only 15 years late!
I have this game for ps2. Before I got it I hadn't played it in over 10 years. The last time I played it was when I had the Xbox version of the game.
Wish I had a PS2 or original xbox
I give Nascar Thunder 2004 a 8/10 for replayability
you could put your spoiler all the way down and just control slide the corners it was amazing
also type in albert ternate on a custom car, which will unlock every single paint scheme in the game
Put Lightning McQueen no. 95, Strip Weathers no. 43, Chick Hicks no. 86, Doc (The Fabulous Hudson Hornet no. 51) from Cars Xbox 360 video game and Junior Moon, Louise Nash and River Scott from Cars 3: Driven To Win in a Nascar 2005-2006 video game right away please? I want to see it on a 100% longplay video.
Dat wreck at the end doe...
iirc bill Elliot was also supposed to be in 06 but they had licensing issues
I give Nascar Thunder 2004 a 10/10 for sound
intro song name?
This video is the reason why I stick to Dirt to Daytona. Besides that game is way more fun and you can literally spin out cars extremely easy but it always felt like your car is some sort of armored, savaged, cannot spin out no matter what beast.
+Joshua Peterson Dirt to Daytona is the iRacing for consoles. Great game, I loved it, and still remember the great times I had playing it.
yea same here. I reached the max speed for all cars during summer of 2005. Dirt was 135mph, Featherlite was 170mph, Truck was 230mph, and Cup (for some funny reason) was 512mph.
Most number of AI spin outs I did in a single NASCAR Dirt to Daytona race was:
Dirt - 7
Featherlite - 15
Truck - 18
Cup - 23
It's really fun to watch your opponents spin over a small tap
dude play Nascar Thunder 2003
When you do a review of NASCAR Thunder 2003, you should know that's the game where Lightning Challenges debuted. It wasn't NASCAR Thunder 2004 that first did Lightning Challenges.
That’s odd, I never encountered the game saving four times like that
14:20, why broken and wrong?
8:06 Elliott Sadler...
How many seasons in 3 months??? I loved building up my shop! Once I had everything I needed to build a badass car, wins came easy-er. Race longer races and don't drive like a douche, and the game will be a lot of fun. Cheers!
I got this game for the original Xbox back in 2011, it was so much fun to play! I got an Xbox 360 for christmas one year and that is when the Original Xbox broke down because it was over 10 years old...I heard that you can play Original Xbox games on the 360 so I put in Nascar thunder 2004...you can only play certian original Xbox games...the list that Xbox chose was based on popularity............how...hoow...hoooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww? HOW IS IT NOT POPULAR ON XBOX AND NOW IM STUCK WITH IT BECAUSE THE STORE I BOUGHT IT FROM CLOSED DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! any suggestions on what I should do with it now?
you can play it with a hard drive
+Sebastian Valdez I do have a hard drive...
“Your game may be broken and wrong if you have different experiences”
Mm no buddy I think YOUR game is broken and wrong.. I mean most of the stuff you mentioned is fixed by good driving, and the save file situation does not happen on Xbox original
theres three racing gods of nascar games dirt to daytona, 04, nr2003 ive never played nr2003 but i want it so bad played dirt to daytona still fun
Got into the game again beat thunder license will start career mode when extended weekend starts
Goodwill sell?
I loved nascar 2004 and the soundtrack to
online at Texas motor speedway I was 204-6.
pffft I've qualified 21st in my rookie season for Career Mode.
i got first... Career mode is easy
+PantherBeast not really if u play on highest difficulty especially the first season
eh
Or you suck like me
Imma he honest, I'll probably just use cheat codes to unlock everything and then just play in quick race
bill Elliot was in 2011 the game
And ps2
he is talking about the last full time year for him
Ok yeah that's true.
Make NASCAR Thunder great again💪👺
i had to quit playing this game got back on 07 and in 4 seasons on kyle busch's #5 Kelllog's Nextel Cup Car!
Wtf is that creepy Cake song 😂
Sponsors come back I know I had craftsman on and off when I sucked
The best nascar game
I just got this game today but i used to have it on ps1
👍👍
07, 05, 04 are the three best NASCAR games. (My opinion.)
Who's watching this in 2023?
NASCAR 2003 ps2 is the best game eve r
do nascar 07
NASCAR 06 is the best.
Eh
Bold thing to say, but it’s still a pretty good game.
Actually I decided that NASCAR thunder 2004 is definitely the greatest NASCAR video game ever created in history, but NASCAR 06 Total Team Control is certainly a close 2nd.
Dirt to Daytona is the best on ps2 and also i liked nascar thunder 2003 better than 2004 it is more challenging
nascar thunder 04 is still the best game in nascar history, except mr. excitement is not in the game
I give Nascar Thunder 2004 a 10/10 for gameplay