''NASCAR Heat 4'' is a

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

simulating the 2019 NASCAR season. It was developed by

Monster Games Monster Games, Inc. is an American independent video game developer in Northfield, Minnesota, United States that specializes in racing games and ports in action, platforms and action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often ab ...

and was published by 704Games on September 13, 2019 for PlayStation 4,

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

and Microsoft Windows via Steam.

Kevin Harvick Kevin Michael Harvick (born December 8, 1975) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick is the 2014 Cup Series champion, ...

is the cover athlete (for the first time since NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup) for the regular release of the game along with

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed Smoke, is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, current NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, and current co-owner of the Superstar Racing Experience. He is ...

, and

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

is on the cover of the Gold Edition.

Gameplay

The Xtreme Dirt Tour returned to the game, and

is a driver and team owner in the series. Players in career mode for the first time can start in any of the four series ( NASCAR Cup,

Xfinity Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the c ...

Trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

, and Xtreme Dirt). Additional updates to the game included different tire compounds for different track types and a track map. Also, custom cars now have an open number choice from 0-99 (including 00-09) for both quick race and career mode.

Downloadable content

Paid

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

packages are available. The downloadable content for pre-ordering is the ability to race

Martinsville Speedway Martinsville Speedway is a NASCAR-owned stock car racing short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. At in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in ...

at night. Although later on in 2019, the Martinsville night race would be a playable option in the game so some gamers didn’t have to download it.

Soundtrack

!Song !Artist , - , Breaking Even , Inner Image , - , Endless Sky , Wild Adriatic , - , Fake It , Steve Everett , - , Feel That Way , Wild Adriatic , - , Long Time Ago , Simplified , - , Queen & King of Smaller Things , Andrew Leahey , - , Say The Word , Fire Fences , - , Take Control , Fire Fences , - , The Architect , Mile Marker Zero , - , The Lion and The Liar , American Theory , - , Tunnel Vision , Fusebox Poet

Reception

''NASCAR Heat 4'' received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Matthew Kato of ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

'' called this iteration of ''NASCAR Heat'' the strongest, noting that its flaws made it more admirable than excellent. The online mode and AI were also criticized for being subpar and the career mode was deemed adequate.

Accolades

The game was nominated for "Game, Franchise Racing" at the NAVGTR Awards.

References

External links

* {{Monster Games 2019 video games NASCAR video games PlayStation 4 games Xbox One games Windows games Multiplayer and single-player video games Racing video games Split-screen multiplayer games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the United States Video games set in Canada Monster Games games