The Nascar Racing Game

Game Review

Reviewed by Richard Grant

Score Productions 26 Executive Park West, NE, Suite 2615, Atlanta, GA 30329- 2216
Released: 1985
Price: $12.97 plus $2.50 for postage
Complexity: Low
Solitaire Suitability: Low
**

Are you all set for big excitement? Are you ready to race at speeds of up to 200 miles an hour? Are you able to compete against the world's best high performance cars? Then maybe the Nascar (National Association of Sports Car Automobile Racing) Racing Game might be just the thing you're looking for, but probably not.

The Nascar Racing Game is a very simple game, much simpler than most board games. In my opinion it is too simple, and this simplicity extends itself to all parts of this game.

The game comes with an 18-page rule and trivia book. There are two pages of over- explained rules and 16 pages of obscure questions, most of which run in the nature of "Who has the fastest recorded qualifying speed ever run at Alabama international Motor Speedway?" More time and effort was put into the trivia than into the game.

Aside from the rule book the rest of the components rate somewhere between marginal and disappointing. The cover art is unimpressive. The green flag and yellow flag cards are made of a light Construction paper. The 12 x 22 inch cardboard board bears the name of the game and, an oval race track. The playing pieces are normal, unexciting, game pawns. There is a note included explaining that the intended race car pieces were not finished when the game was sent out, but should be available from Score Productions soon.

As I said before, The Nascar Racing Game is a very simple game. It requires about a minute to learn the rules and after the player is not burdened with thinking again. The playing pieces are moved around the race track the number of spaces as indicated by the roll of two six-sided dice. There are only two variations to this, pits and cards.

Pit stops must be taken once every five laps. The other change of pace comes when a player lands on a green or yellow flag. The player then draws a card of the same color and follows the instructions. Green cards are helpful, hut yellow slow you clown or force you into the pits early.

The cover of the book reads "High speed thrills from qualifying lap to victory lane! Real racing action to test your driving strategy! For two to six players - ages: six to adult."

High speed thrills? Playing time for a 20-lap race was a boring two hours. Test your driving strategy? As I said before almost no thought goes into the game because it's all decided by who lands on the most yellow or green flags. Ages six to adult should read ages six to twelve. Most adults will tire of this game rather quickly.

If you are a real racing fan and plan to buy this game, I would suggest you use the cash to see the real thing instead. You'll get more entertainment value for your money that way.

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© Copyright 1985 by Dana Lombardy.
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