This may come as a surprise to you but I'm a bit of a car gal. I won't pretend to have the deepest knowledge on the subject, but one of the main ways I've scratched that itch over the years is through racing games. When my roommate purposed the idea of playing through a smorgasbord of the racing games I've accumulated over the years, I started making a list. As that list grew more and more I had to be realistic, they'd only wanna play so many before they were sick of the whole thing. I cut back and trimmed down until I had a strange and beautiful blend of games that were important to me, and games that were important to the industry. So let's start off where, at least for me, it all began, because they just don't make 'em like they used to. That makes me sound way too much like a boomer
I'm gonna start by saying I haven't the slightest idea where or how my parents got this game. I grew up in a racing household, and while it wasn't the area my dad had stuck with he had done stock car racing in the past, granted on pavement. But by all means we had it and a computer old enough to run it, so from a young age I recall zipping around tracks, my favorite being one of the figure 8s. I was a kid after all. I didn't really care about the simulation side of things, like I can enjoy now. But even so this game entertained me for hours on end.
I still have this game actually, though I have at some point lost the little booklet that went inside. Good luck getting it to run on anything remotely modern though, without a virtual machine at least. But that has its own drawbacks, mainly I've been unable to get a controller to work through the VM and thus have to try a simulation style game with a keyboard or use the mouse as a steering wheel. Its about as awkward as it sounds.
So then I looked for an alternative, and the selection isn't great. Especially when looking for something with a bit of a career mode and something with a bit more of a simulation feel to it. There's iRacing of course, that's the only only I've heard of that has a real in depth sim of the complexities of racing on dirt, but I have issues with anything requiring monthly payments. There is Tony Stewart's All American Racing, which is a mouthful, but fun and has an extensive career mode. It feels more on the arcade side of things, so when I'm in the mood for something like that it's great, but still not quite scratching this exact itch. That being small budget, weekend warrior type, stock car racing on dirt with in depth sim elements and a career mode.
With game budgets getting higher and higher there's less and less incentive to make games about weird little interests like this. Even the indie game scene, and I do so love the indie game scene, shies away from things like this cause its just too niche. Maybe one day I'll get my perfect, modern day, crunchy, dirt oval, stock car sim. For now at least I found a few more alternatives to help scratch that really awkward itch on my back. One being NASCAR Racing 2003 for PC. Its abandonware with a dedicated modding community. If you pick a short enough track, knock down the laps to around fifty, and download some old school stock car mods, it gets pretty close. No slide-y dirt physics tho, sadly. The other being 2002 World of Outlaws Spring Cars for the Ps2. What is it with racing games and needlessly long titles? Looking at you Midnight Club 3... DUB Edition... Remix This studio is actually by the same folks who made Dirt Track Racing (1999), which is weirdly nostalgic in a way I'm not sure I can really articulate, but that's for a chost all its own. This all kinda makes me wonder though, what other niche interest type games have since been buried by time?
