In Career mode, I had to say good-bye to my pretty Coca-Cola Sprint Cup car, and hello to my Zombie Tachometers truck. (Yes, they made me drive the truck.) As your rep improves, however, better sponsors and contracts become available, so you won’t be stuck with your tacky truck forever. Once I finished setting up my new ride, I was off to compete in Daytona. On your way, you can change the race settings, and decide how long you want a race to last from the minimum of 3% all of the way up to the official full length race. I opted for the default 10%, but if you’ve got the time and hand strength, check out what a 250-mile race really feels like. Just like Race Now mode, you can practice, qualify or move straight to the race. The banking at Daytona really is no joke, so try not to bang yourself up too badly. Qualifying an abysmal 36th at Daytona, (the bed of my truck was just drawn to the wall in turn 3) I was less than confident about entering the race.

During cautions you’ll get a cut scene of who caused it, and have the option of auto-pitting (a nice feature since some of these tracks have awkwardly located pit roads that are difficult to spot at nearly 200mph). I was threatened with a Black Flag penalty several times at Daytona for rough driving, but they never did go through with it. Between races you can tweak your car’s settings, or opt to leave those decisions in the hands of your crew chief.

Contracts require that you run a specific number of races, qualify in certain positions, and maintain an average placement for finishes. DNFs will not help you to do this so try to keep your car in one piece. Fail to fulfill a contract, and you may find yourself looking for a new ride.

After your first race in Career Mode, Jeff leaves you to your own devices, but you can always go to him for help by using the “ask Gordon” option at the bottom of the screen. With Daytona under my belt it was off to CA and the San Bernadino County 200. The CA track is much easier to navigate than Daytona, and I managed to keep from rubbing the wall at full speed most laps. The controls require some practice, but I did manage to become proficient enough to qualify for the pole and finish fourth in my third overall race.