EA Sports puts players in control of all the aspects of owning, racing, and managing a NASCAR racer in NASCAR 06: TOTAL TEAM CONTROL for the Xbox. Requiring players to take on roles other than just the driver, the game includes concepts like teammates, sponsors, and other new ideas. The biggest addition is the idea of racing in a squad. Players aren’t necessarily out to win the glory and the trophy for themselves. Instead, they have a squad of other drivers with them. Players have to watch exactly who they bump in to. If a teammate hits the wall because of something the player did, that teammate may just change teams and become an opponent. Likewise, there are team statistics, so causing a teammate to finish in last can actually make players lose standings and overall points. Of course, there’s more to squads than just missing other cars. Players can interact with their squadmates and give them orders like drop back or move over. The other cars will act with intelligence, refusing to move over if there’s another car too close to them. Total Team Control allows squad drivers to make decisions based on their surroundings, creating a very realistic situation. Many of the series’ favorite modes have been updated with a few new abilities, and there’s still a huge number of cars and tracks to chose from. NASCAR 06: TOTAL TEAM CONTROL does a great job of really putting the player in control of a NASCAR racing team.
