WATCH: Hands-on with NASCAR Rivals

The Nintendo Switch’s latest NASCAR game – NASCAR Rivals – shares a lot in common with its NASCAR Heat 5 Ultimate Edition predecessor.  

The Motorsport Games-developed racer brings the 2022 NASCAR season to the handheld console, and we’ve had a chance to go hands-on and gather our thoughts on it.

So how does it play? Well, Motorsport Games’ other NASCAR game – NASCAR 21: Ignition – was a disappointingly buggy and uninspiring affair on release last year. However, NASCAR Heat 5 was a solid interpretation of stock car racing and Rivals shares a lot of its pedigree. This could go either way… like Ross Chastain at Turn 1 of Indianapolis’ Road Course…   

Watch as we dissect Rivals’ comprehensive career mode, extensive customisation and the new ‘Challenge’ mode. And given the ‘Rivals’ moniker, the game introduces the chance for players to gain a racing nemesis. (Kind of like the nemesis system in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, but with less brutal retaliations…)

Will NASCAR Rivals be as oddly popular as Chase Elliott? Or will it end up in the wall, upside down and on fire like the aftermath of a Chastain/Hamlin-instigated wreck? Have a watch and come join the discussion!

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