NASCAR Manager Review

Essentially a freemium version of NASCAR Redline, NASCAR Manager suffers from similar issues to its predecessor and even more waiting around.

It combines management with some action sequences, so at least there's a variety of things to do here. Before each race, one must set up their car correctly by buying upgrades and waiting for them to be (slowly) delivered. In-app purchases make it quicker to buy such boosts, thanks to providing one with plenty of money to upgrade. It's possible to progress without that but expect to wait a while and be patient. Once the car has been set up, it's onto qualification with players having to drag a finger around a screen in order to stay within the optimal rev quadrants. It only takes a few seconds to complete, although peculiarly it's rare that players perform particularly well in terms of grid position, even when 100% accurate.

Success mid-race is much the same. Action is split between simulation and the importance of making pitstops at the right moment, as well as some brief action sequences. These action sequences mostly involve hitting the accelerator or the brake at the right time in order to hit the optimal moment. In the end, they mostly just slow the action down and I found myself preferring the simulation screen, which keeps track of how fuel is faring and requires the player to dictate when to push themselves during the race. Pushing the driver to race harder is one of the key parts of success so it's somewhat predictable that players are restricted to how often they can do this thanks to an energy system that gradually restores over time.

Ultimately though, NASCAR Manager isn't anywhere near as interesting as it would like to be. Full of stops and starts, and lacking true excitement, it's all so run of the mill and functional. This is one for NASCAR obsessives only, and even then they're going to need plenty of patience.