Oval wishlist

I have a slightly different theory for adding various ovals including non-US ones.

Add 1/2 in the next update. I'd say Iowa or a 1.5 like Kansas, Texas Or Chicagoland. They're sufficiently different to Gateway to justify it alongside the obvious in Indy. I'd say Michigan is too similar to Fontana to have it on a wishlist. I wouldn't complain if we had it but it's just a less bumpy Fontana.
Personally, I'd add Iowa alongside Indy but I just love Iowa. I'd take a 1.5 in Kansas or Chicagoland since they ruined Texas.

For a European track pack, it would be nice to see the Lausitzring and/or Rockingham. Both have an oval and both have various track layouts for road course racing.

For a Japanese track pack, I feel the same way on Motegi. In Motegi's case it's more obvious with none of the oval (unless you count when IndyCar used the pitlane in reverse in 2011) a part of the circuit and used in various forms of racing like Super Formula, Super GT and the WTCC in recent years.

If they decide to release an expanded Argentinian Track Pack, it would be nice to see Rafaela considering that was used as an oval for ST2000 in 2005. Maybe a Mexican track pack including Hermanos Rodriguez and Puebla.

 

I'm quite surprised that Miami Homestead isn't mentioned more often. This circuit has several historical configurations (quadri oval, oval D...) used by CART and currently used by Nascar. It's my first choice. Then I imagine a short track like Iowa or Phoenix. Otherwise, I agree no need for Michigan because it looks like Fontana. I don't think you get more than 2 ovals in part 4 of the DLC. Also, I hope that Indianapolis is the 6th circuit of the premium pack.

 

It makes sense to feature different types of ovals to get a good feel for the variety oval racing can offer and to better represent a kind of mini-NASCAR schedule. Afterall, it’s pretty unreasonable to expect a non-NASCAR specific game to cover 30+ races, so an abbreviated schedule is fine. With the one obvious exception, I think the IndyCar ovals are in a pretty good place right now as we have both a superspeedway and short (by IndyCar standards) oval.


With that in mind, NASCAR ovals are usually divided into five categories by length:
>2-mile superspeedway—we have Daytona (and hopefully Indianapolis in the future).
2-mile superspeedway—Fontana.
1.5-mile intermediate oval—None. This is NASCAR’s bread-and-butter track so the game should definitely have one of these.
1-mile oval—Gateway.
Short track (<1 mile)—None.

So, seeing we need a 1.5 mile intermediate oval and a short track, I think the best two ovals to add are:
Charlotte Motor Speedway—The intermediate oval. There are loads of intermediates to choose from, but this one hosts the Coca-Cola/World 600, which is the second most important NASCAR race. It also has a round on its infield road circuit.
Bristol Motor Speedway—The Short track. Compared to intermediate ovals, there are not too many active short tracks on the NASCAR calendar (Bristol, Martinsville, Richmond; Iowa hosts IndyCar, but not NASCAR; Fontana is planned to convert to a short track in the future). Bristol is a long running and fan favorite track—perhaps the fan favorite track—and has famously high banking, which serves as a nice contrast to the mostly flat ovals already included (Daytona being the exception).

Some others:
Indianapolis—I’m kind of assuming this comes to the game one way or another and since it’s one of the few internationally famous ovals, I didn’t want to highlight it here. NASCAR doesn’t currently run on the oval anyway and this is a NASCAR-centric post since that’s presumed to be the focus of Racing USA part 4. Still, obviously an important track to have.
Phoenix—In the 1-mile category. It has a unique shape and hosted IndyCar in the past.
Talladega—One of the most famous NASCAR tracks, but if we already have Daytona, Fontana, and (hopefully) Indianapolis, superspeedway racing is represented well enough (same goes for Pocono).
Darlington—This is an old and prestigious venue, but Gateway is a near carbon copy of it, so it seems a bit redundant to include in AMS2 now.
Texas Motor Speedway—A decent intermediate alternative to Charlotte since it also hosts current IndyCar. However, it is not very popular in either series at the moment.

International options (of course, these wouldn’t make sense in a ‘Racing USA’ pack):
Hermanos Rodríguez/Mexico City—Features a 1-mile oval configuration and has the benefit of also being an F1 circuit.
Twin Ring Motegi—Checks off the 1.5-mile intermediate box and has a road configuration. Hosted an official round of IndyCar and a NASCAR exhibition in the past.
Luanda—Let’s get weird with it. An obscure track in the capital of Angola that has an Indianapolis-style quad-oval configuration, but with a bend on its back straight. It sort of looks like if a quad-oval and a D-shaped oval had a baby. Recently started hosting local races again on its road circuit layout. I don’t think any major racing series ever visited it.

 

I like Miami, too and wouldn't disagree with its inclusion. I actually forgot about it when thinking of 1.5s as it's not the traditional 1.5 shape. Having that and Miaminapolis as a classic layout would be cool to have.

 

I absolutely suck at Dover.
Swap Martinsville for Bristol, and Dover for Eldora

 

We would need some dirt specials for Eldora! And I suck at every single oval

 

In general Ovals in NASCAR are of 3 general types as most may be aware.
Super Speedways, Daytona, Talledaga, Charlotte, Pocono etc
Speedways: Texas motor speedway, Vegas, California, Nashville etc
Short tracks: martinsville, Dover, Bristol... etc

You dont need them all, but you do need at least 2 of each, and combined with 2 road courses, would make a nice NASCAR season championship.

However without a CUP series type car (mustang, Camaro, Camry, and others from the past) that are properly custom built with lighter weight, with/without restrictor plates and custom suspension, there is really NO point to include any Ovals that INDY cars do not race.

Would not be too hard to create these cars with what's in the game already. The cars could all drive the same since the body work is just fake sheet metal. But the existing Camaro does not even drive like a real Camaro, let alone a NASCAR Cup Car.

just my .02... I would love to see this happen in AMS2

 

I don't like short tracks. Any oval need to be at least 2 miles minimum. Indianapolis is on wish list then.

 

I would agree that with limited resources and time, it's better to get an oval that's very different from each other than what's offered than to grab a bunch of similar ovals or cookie cutters.

I would love more ovals with IndyCar history such as Pocono (including all various infield layouts!), Kansas, and Iowa. Nashville Superspeedway is a fun unique oval as well as it's a concrete surface. Would love Richmond as well if we're getting short tracks that can double up as an IndyCar and IndyCar track.

Mexico has quite a few ovals that might be cheaper to license out to the game that I think IndyCar can fun on (without worrying about SAFER barriers at these places). Such as Óvalo Aguascalientes, El Dorado Speedway, and Autódromo Miguel E. Abed.

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez as a Grade 1 GP track would be great too that has an outer layout as an oval.

Charlotte Motor Speedway with it's now famous Roval would be great as well.

Indianapolis would be a no brainer for the IndyCars.

 

Indy cars only race a few ovals most of the circuit is road courses. So it makes little sense to include any ovals that the Indy cars dont race on regularly. If they add a real nascar type race car, then add the big ovals