I was apprehensive about buying this game. However, I went ahead and laid down the money and have been extremely pleased with my decision. First of all, the graphics are very good and the racing can get intense. The action is fast paced and all of the tracks look as they do on TV.

One thing I love is the Nascar 2005 can be a very deep game with a lot of replay value. Of course, if you just want to race one race at a time you can do that, but if you want to start a carrier, it is very detailed and involved. You start in the Featherweight division with little money and no fans. After you start winning some races, you gain money, fans, and notoriety among the other racers. You also have an agent who will help you climb the ladder of fame. If you do well in the Featherweight, you can move up to the Truck series, the Bush series, and then on to Nascar. However, you have to wait for offers to come across from car owners in that particular division. For example, if you are doing well in the Bush series Motorola may offer you a deal to drive for them in Nascar. You can take the deal, or hold out to try and get a better offer from another sponsor. It's totally up to you. You will also be challenged to street races by some of the Nascar drivers. These are pretty cool because they allow you to race with streetcars such as the new 2005 Ford Mustang! If you win, you will gain notoriety and the drivers will respect you more on the track.

Another aspect that I love is the gas pedal. With the gas being the right top button on the XBOX controller, you can use it just like an actual pedal. You can let off a little to make it through the turns then floor it on the straightaway's. It really gives you more control of your car because you are able to make it through the turns easily, while still applying a little bit of gas. Very nice!

Also, the addition of the "share draft" and "intimidate" buttons work nicely. If you are drafting someone that is on the inside of a two car wide draft, you can press the "share draft" button and it will suck you up on the car in front of you. This allows the driver to pass cars on the outside because the more cars you have in a draft, the faster you are. As for the "intimidate" button, you can press and then literally intimidate the car in front of you. If you have the button locked in and bump draft the car you are intimidating, he will usually move out of your way. However, if you are too rough you could tick him off and cause him to come after you. Yeah, I've been wrecked a couple of times for pissing off a driver.

This game is a blast and I give it my highest recommendation!

This game is for players that want a challenge (Not recomended for beginners). This game is good for NASCAR fans that under stand the season. You start out racing Ryan Newman on the streets and if you beat him you will get a race contract (Don't think you will start out in the Nextel series, but you will need to move your way up the to the Nextel series). This is FIGHT TO THE TOP mode, but that's not the only thing. You can go to race mode and do Race Now, Season, Chase For The Cup, Dodge Speed Zone, Lightning Chalange, and Race Online. In the Features mode there is What's New and Costom Car Garage. There are many other features in this game you can explore. Just a heads up it's a 1-2 player game unless online. Things to improve are when you race FETHERLIGHT and PRODUCTION there is no pitting or yellow flages. Also in FIGHT TO THE TOP once you put difficulty in and start you can't change it, but you can change how your person looks. You can save more than one game on it(X-BOX only). It could improve but it is still an awesome game.

I'm not a big NASCAR fan but I found this to be a pretty good game. The combination of driver/owner modes is a cool idea but both seem to be a bit under developed.

Owner mode pretty much consists of buying a team, buying all the upgrades for the car and the pit crew, then letting it run itself. In real life, most teams have more than one car. This is not an option here. You are also limited in the drivers you can hire and I have only seen one who has the capability to actually win a championship, sort of frustrating if you own two or three teams.

On the driver side, your car setup will rarely need to be adjusted. You should be able to get the pole in virtually every qualifying session without any adjustments (at the lower levels anyway). The allies / rivals feature is a nice touch but only works one way. If you want to 'share draft' with someone, you have to let him pass you then draft him. The AI drivers will not use this feature on you no matter how good your alliance is.

The production car feature is, in a word, silly. Just as an experiment I took the Mustang GT out on Talledega. I'm sure the new Mustang is a fine car, but I doubt it is capable of 190+MPH in fourth gear at 9000RPM. Last I checked, 9000RPM would send pistons flying every-which-way in 95% of production cars. As well, Last I checked the SRT-4 was Front Wheel drive, yet when you do a burn out on your 'victory lap' you quite clearly spin the rear tires madly. For the production cars, they clearly just put a different skin over the stock cars and called it a day.

The single most frustrating thing about this game however is the "Pit road problem" On occasion, there will be an accident on pit road which will get a car stuck sideways, blocking all access to the pits. The AI can't get the car unstuck. If you're entering the pits and this happens in front of you, your only option is to quit the race, otherwise you'll just be stuck there as the rest of the field drives laps around you.

All in all, it's a fun game to drive and the multiple series allow for a lot of playablility.

Unless you count GTA3 and GTA:VC, this is my first racing game since getting Donald Hill's "Ferrari Grand Prix" for the Mac in the mid-1980's. I don't follow Nascar and I don't know much about other racing circuits, either. So this review is from that perspective.

This is a solid game. I've been playing it on and off for a few months now in Fight to the Top mode and have really enjoyed every aspect of what I've encountered. I think the AI is pretty impressive, particularly in the rival/ally bits. I don't have any problem with the controls just using the xbox controller, though I'm not playing this game for more than 2 hours at a time. I'm sure that a wheel would be handy if you're going longer than that (but since this the only racing game I've got I don't see a point in getting one myself).

I see myself playing this game for a good long time. I like the racing and team management aspects of the game, and the unlockables aren't the typical b.s. you might see in other games. I actually think the graphics are pretty good and I don't mind not having a cockpit view at all (since I think the view that's offered makes up for the lack of peripheral vision you'd have in a cockpit view).

Some of the interfaces are a little clunky here and there, and I'd actually like to be able to get a little deeper into rivalries (like going to other drivers pits and starting fistfights, since they seem to try that with my driver quite a bit) but I must say that for a game that's not hit-you-over-the-head sweet (like HALO 2 or GTA:VC or whatever) this one really sucks you in and keeps you there for the long haul.

This year's game brought some really interesting stuff to the table. You start the game by racing against Ryan Newman in a street race. You, then, create your own profile. The game includes the Alliance/Rivalry feature from last year's game. You can build alliances with drivers by sharing your draft with them, and in THIS year's game, you can take it one step further with the intimidator feature. Using this feature, you can now get right up behind another driver, and in many cases, cause them to lose control of their car.

The way Thunder Plates are unlocked is great. In previous games, Thunder Plates were unlocked (at random) by simply completing Lightning Challenges. This year, you can actually BUY Thunder Plates. Thunder Plates are purchased with skill points. You earn skill points by accomplishing certain tasks (such as making 5 allies in one race or making 5 rivals in one race), or by playing Lightning Challenges. You can also earn skill points by simply racing. You get 5 points for every second you lead the race, 7 for every second you're sharing your draft with another driver, 7 when you're intimidating another driver, 12 for every time you make a clean pass, and even more if you start out farther back in the pack and make it into the top 5 and, of course, 1st place.

The game also includes last year's Speedzone Challenge. This mode is great for brushing up on your various skills. The different challenges include drafting, passing, blocking, and more.

In addition to Nextel Cup racing, you will find the Craftsman Truck series, Busch series (referred to as "NASCAR National series"), and even the Modified series. The game also includes production cars and allows for some street racing.

There are also fantasy road courses in the game from last year. The Docks, Devil's Canyon, and New York are just a few.

The controls for NASCAR 2005 are also a lot smoother and more forgiving. It almost seemed as though in last year's game, one would find themselves very dependent on driving assists. In this year's game, making mistakes won't cost you the race.

Graphically, 2005 is overall impressive. The framerate is, however, more varied. Going down the back stretch, you will find the framerate is very solid, and very smooth (even when the rear view mirror is on). Going into the turns and a few other random spots, you will find the framerate drops drastically. Also, reviving one feature from Thunder 2002, when you start a night race, you will see the sun setting in an orange sky. By the end of the race, even on 8%, you will see the sky is totally dark.

Now, the bad news and the reason I give the game 4 stars instead of 5. If I could, I would actually give this game 3.5 stars. Anyway, NASCAR 2005 is missing quite a few drivers. Even in the Nextel series, Jeremy Mayfield and Ken Schrader are missing! Pocono Raceway is missing! As mentioned by someone else, there are several Busch and Craftsman drivers missing. That truly takes something away from the game. Another thing is the ability to create a new car and create a name for each driver of each created car. Whatever info you use to create your profile in Fight to the Top mode will be the info applied to every car you create.

Overall, this year's game isn't bad. With all the extra modes, the game's playability will stay longer. However, hardcore NASCAR fans will be disappointed to see drivers and tracks missing.