The assists are primarily for those using a gamepad. Novice, Rookie, Veteran and Champion are four pre-set levels that put assists all on at the lowest level and all off except for Steering Assist at the highest.
A custom setting will let users choose which assists to turn on and which to turn off. How tough do you want the computer opponents to be? The same four settings as above with an added Extreme difficulty, the first three will be easy to navigate for skilled players. Champion will prove to be a challenge for some, but if you still find that easy to get to the top, then the Extreme option will be your best bet.
Pick whichever level you feel you will have the most fun at. I went with Veteran, personally. This determines how much of the steering the game is doing for you. With it switched on, it will help you turn corners. You can select Off, Low, Medium or High strengths. The amount of braking that the game will automatically apply for you. If you want some help with getting slowed into the corners, turn it on. Low will help a little bit while High will pretty much do all the slowing for you. A more realistic and faster approach is to turn this off, but only once you have got up to speed with the game and feel comfortable knowing where to brake on each track.
If you end up facing the wrong way, the game will help you spin around in the correct direction when switched on. Simply hit the gas, start steering, and your car will be spun around in the right direction again. One for those who have never tried any racing game before.
Otherwise, I suggest keeping this setting switched off. If you have issues with spinning out, Traction Control keeps you from getting sideways by limiting the amount of power sent to the rear wheels when they start to spin.
Fairly obviously, you can go for Automatic or Manual gear shifting. The same physical forces allowing Johnson to keep up with the competition led to Johns' defeat. Johns reportedly was in a drafting position with another driver and the lower pressure from the slipstream was so intense it sucked Johns' rear window out of his car. Johns spun out and crashed and Junior Johnson won the race. NASCAR imposes strict rules on engine power, engine components, body design and composition so no one team can gain too much of an advantage.
The end result is a game of very small numbers and percentages and those numbers play out in body design and driving skill -- which, of course, includes drafting. Daytona and Talladega are two superspeedway racing venues where a draft-savvy driver can really shine. Both tracks offer banked curves and long straightaways where a driver can push a car to its upper limits.
It's for this reason that tracks require restrictor plates and other safety measures to limit top speeds. Because of this, capable drafting is often a key to success. Traditional restrictor plates drop the overall power of the cars by about horsepower [source: Boone ]. Plates were first used in the s to even the playing field between larger and smaller engines, as well as a safety measure as the tracks became larger and the cars became more powerful. In , NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace tested a car at Talladega without a restrictor plate and reached a reported top speed of miles per hour kilometers per hour on the backstretch and had a one-lap average speed of mph.
Despite the use of restrictor plates, NASCAR drivers often reach speeds of more than miles per hour kilometers per hour. This is in large part due to drafting where an understanding of the physics involved allow drivers to help reduce drag and gain a few more miles per hour kilometers per hour in the process.
At smaller tracks, like Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee where drivers turn second laps, the constant curve of the track means less opportunity to draft. Here, engines are allowed to run full power and downforce becomes critical.
With more than horsepower being produced in some races, downforce is maximized to stick the car to the track. At superspeedways, downforce is purposely reduced since the track layout requires higher speeds on the straightaways.
The adjustments become a bit of a balancing game: Less downforce means greater straightaway speed, but less grip in the turns, and more downforce means improved grip in the turns, but slower straightaway speeds. As you can imagine, finding the perfect adjustment can prove difficult.
Until recently, the mix of track layout, engines, tires, drivers and strategies, drag and downforce required most teams to field several cars, especially for Sprint Cup series competition. The initial plan called for the design to be featured in 26 of the 36 races on the NASCAR schedule and then bumped up to permanent use in the racing season.
Instead, the new design was raced in all 36 races on the schedule and is currently the only car design NASCAR allows to race. The rear wing replaces the traditional spoiler and the front splitter is a thin horizontal piece under the front bumper that increases downforce. Teams will be allowed to adjust the angle of attack on the wing and the position of the front splitter to custom tune the car's performance on different tracks.
Hill said the changes have a serious effect on the car's wake characteristics and therefore on the drafting potential of the car. The end result is a car that's harder to pass and harder to draft. Drafting strategy involves more than simply knowing where to place your car on the track , and it often has less to do with aerodynamics and more to do with driver's knowledge of the competition's mind.
Drafting strategy is where a race becomes a mental challenge as well as a battle of speed and guts. The lead driver can step on the brakes, come within inches of the following driver, and deprive them of the air needed to cool the engine. And just like that, one competitor goes down. The following driver can also pull a similar tactic, inching up on the car ahead in order to disrupt the flow of air over the lead car's body.
Remember, that airflow is critical for keeping the lead car's tires stuck to the track surface. Without it, and maybe with a little help in the form of a bump, the lead car can lose traction, skid into an outside lane and quickly drop 10 places or more during a race.
Teams, sometimes official but often an informal collaboration, use the power of drafting to rocket members past the competition, vie for the best track real estate and even steal the race lead at a moment's notice. All's fair, it seems, in love, war and drafting. The two-car draft is the most basic draft pattern and the one most often used by a team. Pulling within a car length of a lead car benefits the trailing car by reducing drag.
That same reduction also benefits the lead car as the presence of the trailing car reduces the pressure drag off the back of the lead car. The result is a speed increase for both drivers. He said the drag created by the boxy truck designs, as well as less horsepower than Cup Series vehicles, put drafting at the top of the strategy list. As you may have guessed, the more cars involved in a draft the less drag each vehicle will experience. They will control the day to day operations, and get the team ready to ship out to the track.
At the track, they will make sure the car passes inspection and is up to spec. They are the people who oversee the changes made to the car, as requested by the driver or crew chief. The Jackman carries around a 22 pound jack and their job is to prop each side of the car up so the tires can be changed. The Jackman has an added responsibility due to the removal of the rear tire carrier position, as now the Jackman is charge of helping out the rear tire changer.
Upon completion of the pit stop, the Jackman will lower the car and signal for the driver to go. There are two tire changers whose jobs are pretty straightforward; change the tires.
Using air wrenches, the tire changers will remove the lug nuts on their assigned tires one side of the car at a time. They will then remove the tire, before the tire carrier or Jackman will place the new tire on the car so they can bolt it on.
They need to make sure all 5 lug nuts are fastened or they will risk a penalty. His salary is generally paid for by the sponsor, which gets a certain number of scheduled appearances out of the driver in return. The driver will also split race-day winnings with the team, and there are usually incentives for winning big races -- like the Daytona , for example.
The driver can also bring in fees for additional appearances or even license his likeness to advertisers. The best drivers -- with the best agents -- can bring in millions each year, like 's top earner, Jeff Gordon.
Since everything is negotiable, let's talk about all those little logos that cover every surface of a NASCAR race car. In the early days of stock-car racing, very few teams had sponsors.
If they did, it would be an "in-kind" deal, where a company would provide tools or equipment in exchange for a sticker or mention of the company's name by the driver. But ever since sponsorship took hold in the s, it's next to impossible to run races without corporate backing. Just as different cuts of meat can vary widely in price, so too can the location of a company's logo on a NASCAR racer. The logo on the hood belongs to the primary sponsor, who also gets to choose the car's paint scheme and the team colors.
The rest of it is -- you guessed it -- negotiable. Associate sponsors are responsible for the fields of stickers that sprawl across the fenders and near the windows.
Size and placement influence cost, with the quarter panels being the most expensive place to add a logo. The area called the C-pillar, which is next to the rear window on both sides of the car, is the next most expensive spot.
The B-pillar, which is probably easiest to describe as the area right next to the driver's shoulder, is the smallest associate sponsorship possible. Other logos on the car carry on the "in-kind" tradition, like Craftsman, for example. They provide tools for the teams in return for a nice, big logo on the car.
Though it might not seem so, NASCAR is tightening the restrictions on where logos can be placed and how large they can be.
In response, product placements are gaining ground at the track. Drivers are paid to swig non-alcoholic drinks on camera in the pits after a race, and crew chiefs are paid to mention sponsors' names in interviews. There's a reason sponsors fork over so much cash. Up next, an exploration of return on investment. Not so -- that was part of the federal tobacco settlement deal of the early s.
There are no hard-and-fast rules for who can or cannot be a sponsor, though some have been turned down. Playboy, for instance, has tried to sponsor a team for the past few years, but the NASCAR powers that be have refused. Though beer sponsorships have been around for a long time, hard liquor wasn't allowed for years until If you're family-friendly and not infringing on anyone else's exclusive deals, you're good to logo. The most obvious result is in the fanbase of over 50 million viewers.
That's a lot of potential advertising impressions to make.
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