NASCAR The Game: Inside Line is the second game relating to NASCAR from Eutechnyx. One of the features is a more in-depth career mode which allows players to race in the Cup series, attract new sponsorships and upgrade their car's components. The career mode, as well as the online mode, also includes more realistic race weekends. All of the 23 tracks as well as many Sprint Cup Series drivers, teams and cars is included in the game. The voices of Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip from NASCAR on Fox are featured during pre-race cutscenes. Former crew chief and NASCAR on ESPN analyst Ray Evernham is also featured during the garage setup scenes.
A.I. and animations
For the game-controlled cars in single-player mode, the developers used positional and telemetry data recorded by NASCAR during races as well as driver performance statistics to replicate the real-life racing styles of the drivers. This includes bump drafting initiated by the A.I. cars. Like in other NASCAR games, pit stops were replicated using motion capture of real-life pit crew members.
In early 2013, the Generation 6 Cars were announced as a downloadable content for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, updating the game for the 2013 season. The cars were expected to be released for play sometime around the time of the Daytona 500 in February. However, due to an issue while trying to release an update, they were not fully revealed until 31 March and released on 2 April. The DLC was not free, requiring the purchase of individual schemes or the Season Pass. Certain schemes were released for free late in the season for a week's time after the driver scored a victory. On 19 October, the company officially announced that there will be no more Generation 6 paint schemes due to technical issues.
Windows version
On 12 June 2013, Eutechnyx announced NASCAR The Game: 2013, an optimized version of NASCAR The Game: Inside Line developed for Microsoft Windows. The game was the first officially licensed PC NASCAR game since NASCAR SimRacing in 2005. Shortly after the game's announcement, it was made available for early accessbeta testing through pre-order via Steam. The game was tuned and tweaked in line with key player feedback and was officially released in late July. Like the console DLC, the PC version features the Gen-6 cars from the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and updated 2013 season roster of drivers. In September 2013, Eutechnyx released for-purchase DLC packs that would add over 80 additional paint schemes.
Drive for the Cover
In May 2012, Eutechnyx announced the Drive for the Cover tournament to determine the cover driver. It was a 32 driver bracketed tournament that matched drivers in pairs for fans to vote on Facebook for their favorites. The winner, announced in mid-August, was NASCAR's most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., who beat teammate Kasey Kahne in the final round.
