It's fun, yet it has some flaws
First I'll start with the good.
EA's idea to take racing to the team-based level was bold, but in the most part, a huge success. The main point of video games is to depict a realistic scenerio, and Real-life Nascar drivers do race in teams. Also, the team-based spirit may cause some people to accept more clean styles of racing. For example, I have a much better time racing clean in this game as opposed to my older Nascar Thunder 2004. Now 2004 just serves as my personal demolition derby game, because 06 is that muh better. I'm actually careful who I "accidentally" slam in to, because I actually feel a bit of remorse when I slam my teammate into the wall. Not only does this make for spotty team chemistry, but it hurts your overall team prestige when your teammate accepts a 40th place.
Second of all, the Fight to the Top mode is for the most part excellant, but a bit too easy if you know how to manipulate the system. For example, sometimes I skip about 7 Whelen events in a row, and then I get an email saying that i got a raise. How realistic is that? You get paid more not to show up to work. Also, once you buy a team in fight to the top mode, it would be good if they made it more difficult, or more availible to upgrade cars. For example, I upgraded a Whelen team as much as i could for about $60,000, which left me with about $200,000 just sitting there itching to be spent on more upgrades. You also never lose money. Throughout the year, even if you forfeit every event, your team still makes about $100,000 profit. Your sponsors really don't care either. It would be much more of an interesting challenge if the game tallied more expenses and had your sponsors suspend paying you if you perform poorly. Since you gain so much money, in about ten years of simulating, or about 2-3 hours, you can buy your way into the NEXTEL CUP series, the top dog of racing. It would take you at least 10-12 hrs of racing to get you to the top relying on just contracts. So now I own Roush Racing, and have over 70 million dollars in the bank n just 15 years. Not only that, but I had 40 million dollars to spend upgrading the team when i bought it, but i ended up only spending about six million on all the upgrades, so all my other money just sits there. Fight to the Top mode is great, but it has to much ease to it.
Another great race mode is Dodge Challenges. This one is especially fun, and definately not easy. It takes you through the multiple stories of many current NEXTEL Cup drivers as they (i mean you,) pass leaders with 2 laps to go, hold off the pack at dover with Mark Martin, or avoid crashes. They start off easy, but as you progress into higher difficulty levels, it can be frustrating trying to get past a 6-car pile-up without any damage, but overall, its a fun race mode.
Another classic mode is Race Now. Obviously that means you race now. You can choose any one of 4 NASCAR series (NEXTEL CUP, NNS, Craftsman Truck, or Whelen Series), and several other custom settings such as Driver AI (How skilled the other drivers are), length (How long the race is), Unlimited Fuel and Tires (Whether or not you want to eliminate pit stops), and yellow flags (wheter or not you want to have the race stopped when you spin out or crash.) After that, you get to pick your driver. It just shows their name, their number, a picture of them, a picture of their car, and their racing team and teammates. After you select a driver, you select a race track, and then the race begins.
Once the race starts there are some good features to make this game a worthwhile racing experiance. First of all, in the bottom right corner of your screen, there should be an icon that liiks like the right thumbstick with somw numbers on it. The numbers represent the cars of your teammates respectively. Thisis called the interactive crew chief. You use it to give several SIMPLE, but good commands to your teammates. Some of the commands include drop back (your teammate slows down to get behind you and to get into a draft), block (if your teammate's in front of you, he will get in the way of cars trying to pass him and you) pit now (your teammate will go down pit road) and work with me (your teammate will break aprt from a line and share a draft with you.) The most important command (and coolest looking,) is SWAP. Using when this command is initiated, you will "get out" of your car, "fly" accross the track, and take control of your teammate's car. This is a very effective method of improving your teammate's position, to better your team prestige. It also looks cool to fly around between cars.
Two effective ways to pass people on the track is through share draft and Intimidator. When you share a draft with another car, you get behind the other person's car. When you do this, you both pick up speed, and save fuel. This in turn, earns his respect and forges alliances. Also, when you inch your way closer to the car ahead of you, by pulling out of the draft, you get a slingshot effect of some kind, and you speed increases as you pass the car ahead of you. Another way to pass people on the track is to intimidate them. When you initiate Intimidator, you move behind them again, and by putting resistance on the other car's spoiler, you slow the other car down and sometimes cause him to spin out of control. You mus be careful when executiing this maneuver because sometimes, when you don't pay atention, the car slows down, ans spins out right into your front bumper. This can make drivers upset, and therefore, forge rivalries and grudges.
The game also uses a cool voice recognition system if you have a headset, but i find it to be ineffective because it is slow to pick up commands, it misenterprets commands, and it also flags you for foul language just by breathing into the dang thing.
The Graphis in the game are somewhat flawed. For example, if your car flips, it may liik like it's a Hot Wheels underneath. Also, whenever you're changing tires at a pit stop, the tires will look horribly pixelly. But nevertheless, the graphics still get the job done.
The game sounds great. The rumble of the engine is very believable (AND LOUD!) Also, the crew chief has some funny things to say to you especialy for bad language into the headset
Nascar 06 Total Team Control delivers a good, believable, and relatively realistic game. I recommend it to any racing fans who want a change from just single car racing. All-in-all EA delivers.