Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge was produced by Distinctive Software and distributed by Konami in 1990. This game brings back a lot of memories for me personally and is unique because it was the first of its kind in some ways, as well as the last of its kind in a few others. It was the first racing game to actually secure the NASCAR license and also the first to include an actual current NASCAR driver. Few people remember that "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" had won the championship only two years before this game's release and still to this day hold the records at both Daytona and Talladega for speed in the days before restrictor plate racing was introduced.
That fact alone is one of the items that make this game the last of its kind too. It was one of the last games to have restrictor free racing in its un-tampered form. The first version of NASCAR Racing from Papyrus also allowed restrictor free racing, but didn't have the same feeling of raw speed as this game did. That's one of the biggest things I recall fondly about this game, the sense of raw speed in its pure form as you tore around the big two twin tracks of Daytona and Talladega.
Another last in this game were the inclusion of Oldsmobile, Mercury, and Buick as manufacturers, as well as the big three of Ford, Chevrolet, and Pontiac. Racing consisted of a choice of either single
races or a Championship season against 10 other fictional drivers, along with Bill Elliott himself, on 8 official NASCAR tracks. The tracks included are the two I've already mentioned, the Daytona and Talladega Super speedways. Also with these are the Atlanta, Michigan, and Darlington Speedways, as well as the two road courses of Sears Point and Watkins Glen. Race distances can be edited from just a few laps up to the full entire 500 mile affairs. Graphically, this game was above average for the period and much better in my opinion than the fictional Days of Thunder game based on the movie which came out in the same year. Frame rates were surprisingly steady for the time and offered a very smooth drive with good control.
I guess what I remember most about this game was that it was the first real introduction to NASCAR for me. Having been born in the Northern US, I knew little about the sport other than the Daytona 500 and the likes of Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough. I was more of a road racing fan, following the SCCA sports cars, IMSA production cars, Formula One, and the most unique and unforgettable series, Can-Am. It was through this game that I got my first appreciation for oval racing and the joy of pounding round and round the asphalt monsters. My appreciation became a joy which translated into my becoming a beta tester for Sierra/Papyrus for both the NASCAR and Indycar series. So for this reason, Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge is a special choice for me, even all these years later. But for the rest of you, all the other reasons I've mentioned still make this game well worth the download for a test drive if you will, and a very, very, quick spin around the NASCAR block.
