NASCAR 06: Total Team Control was a very enjoyable game for the Xbox. Whether or not you were a seasoned pro or a newbie, you could find something to like about the game.

EA has just released NASCAR 07 for the Xbox (sorry, 360 owners, it’s not coming out for you, so you’ll have to fire up the black beauty). The good news is that it’s still an enjoyable game. The bad news is that not a lot has changed from last year’s game.

Let’s go over the new items in the game, as there are a few. First, there are new “Allstate Qualifiers” which help your status in the Fight To The Top career mode. You’ll have one lap time trials and you’ll try to go as fast as possible and try earning medals. It’s a fun mini-game but doesn’t mean you need to make a full price purchase.

Next, driver attributes have been added so that drivers will be better on some courses such as road courses versus “real” race tracks. Veterans will race better than rookies as well. Dale Earnhardt Jr will race better at Daytona than on a road course. It’s tough to see an enormous difference in gameplay – the difference is subtle, and I will say you can notice #8 run just a little bit better at Daytona. The attributes can change during the race -- your driver rating can increase or decrease during a race. This is a very good idea, although again, it’s a subtle change.

The actual racing modes aren’t very different from the 06 version. The main “career” mode is called Fight To The Top. Just as a refresher, in Fight To The Top mode you’ll start off in the Whalen modified series with a relatively low paying contract and then work your way through the ranks until the Craftsman Truck series comes calling, the NBS (Busch for those that are alcohol-tolerant) and then of course the NEXTEL Cup. Many of the gripes I had last year are still here in this mode – specifically, you have email conversations and not much in the way of negotiation.

The manual is just plain terrible and it is actually unbelievable that EA can only put together seven page manuals for such a supposedly intricate game. For someone that was weaned on the Papyrus PC “novel” manuals that were the size of bricks, this is unacceptable.

The graphics haven’t changed much – there are some new pretty touches in the game…the sun can actually affect your racing as you can be blinded by it—even when wearing a helmet with sun protection. After spending all your time on an Xbox 360, even if these graphics are good by Xbox standards, it’s tough to appreciate them.

The modes are all the same as last year; you can do a quick race, enjoy the career mode, enjoy some scenario challenge modes and of course race online. The online race is a little deceptive, especially if you’re used to the NASCAR PC games of old. At most, you can only have four online racers and the rest are computer controlled. I am not sure what’s with the 1998 technology here, but EA really needs to get with the online program.

The Total Team controls are back and these are either a lot of fun if you’re an arcade fan, or degrading the game if you are a sim fan. Using Total Team controls, if you’re out of the race (via accident or out of gas), you can switch to another car that is owned by the same company and drive that one to the finish. If you are so inclined, you can also ask for help from your teammate to block or follow. This year there are a few more commands like drop back and hold, which is nice. You can use voice commands using the Xbox headset; however like last year, I found it extremely sensitive as it takes the in-game audio through my speakers as if I’m talking and not the game.

The racing is just as good as it was – it starts off easy and gets harder. You can tweak your car as needed, and the changes do seem to affect the driving of the vehicle. The tracks are very good replicas of the real thing. I’ve been to a few of the tracks in game and it absolutely looks like Daytona or New Hampshire International Speedway. The speed of the game feels about right although it could be a little faster for my tastes.