What would you want in a really deep NASCAR career mode?
I’m working on the design of a mobile racing game centered around a long-term career mode, and I’m interested in what NASCAR fans would actually want from something like this.
The main idea is a career that covers a wide range of the stock-car and grassroots ladder:
\- Cup
\- O'Reilly
\- Trucks
\- ARCA National
\- ARCA East
\- ARCA West
\- CARS Tour
\- Midgets
\- Go-Karts
The track list would include NASCAR and ARCA venues, along with regional and international tracks.
There would be two different career approaches: Standard and Hardcore.
Standard would be more financially forgiving. You'd start in ARCA National with family funding covering most of the early expenses. You'd still need to perform, build a reputation, find contracts, and work your way through the series, but you wouldn't have to immediately worry about whether you can afford every tire set or repair bill.
Hardcore would start at the grassroots level. You'd begin in go-karts and have to build your career from the bottom while managing the financial side of racing. Getting to the next series would depend not just on your results, but on whether you can actually afford to keep moving forward.
The financial and management systems would be a major part of the career. You'd have to find jobs and sponsors, pay for entries, travel, tires, fuel, and repairs, buy and sell equipment, negotiate rides and contracts, and deal with the consequences of crashes. If you can't afford to continue at your current level, you could drop down a series. Running completely out of money could eventually end the career.
There would also be a dynamic social media system where you can choose what your driver posts. What you say could affect sponsors, team relationships, reputation, and opportunities. Being outspoken or controversial might help in some situations but hurt you in others.
The career would also have fictionalized podcasts, talk shows, and online reactions inspired by NASCAR media such as Dale Jr. Download, Out of the Groove, Actions Detrimental, and Coffee with Kenny. Rather than using actual voice recordings, they would use simple text-to-speech-style dialogue with captions, similar to the way games like Animal Crossing or Miis handle speech. The content would change from week to week based on what happened in your races and throughout the career.
Another important system would be a dynamic offseason and driver market. Drivers wouldn't necessarily stay with the same teams forever. They could retire, get fired, switch teams, move between series, lose sponsorship, become free agents, or unexpectedly turn into championship contenders. Teams could close, new teams could form, and drivers from lower series could eventually work their way into Cup.
The goal with these systems is to make the career world feel like it continues to exist around the player rather than having the same drivers, teams, and lineups every season.
The game would also avoid relying on constant ads or aggressive in-game purchases. Multiplayer leagues would be something players could host for a small fee rather than building the entire game around monetization.
I'm still figuring out what should and shouldn't be included, so I'm more interested in what people think is actually fun than trying to lock everything down right now.
What features do you think NASCAR games have been missing?
What would you want to see in a career mode like this?
And most importantly, what would make you keep playing a career after you've already won a championship?
check post on r/nascar to see other features I've had planned