THE NASCAR RACING FAQ
for NASCAR I & II
THE NASCAR RACING FAQ
for NASCAR I & II
UPDATED 16 NOV 97
What are all these abbreviations? N2, N99, AI and so on? Here's a list of abbreviations that you'll find between sim racers and sites that work with sim racing. N1, N2, N99, ect. - These are all just short versions of NASCAR Racing, and the number designates the version..."N99" means NASCAR Racing 1999, while NL means NASCAR Legends. All from Papyrus. ICR2 stands for Indycar II, another sim by Papyrus. AI stands for artificial intellegence...what makes the computer drivers drive like they do. TSW stands for Thomas Steering Wheel, a great steering device.
How do I set up my car? - Keep the setups that come with the game, (ace, qual, ect). Load whichever setting you want to use, make the necessary changes, then save it to another name; "racetall" for Talladega, ect. Some people even have a 2nd version saved, so then they can go out, make a change to the race car, save it, try it, and then update the main one if they like the changes. The MAIN thing to remember is to make ONLY ONE CHANGE AT A TIME! If you change several things at once, you may find that the car works better or worse, but you won't know which changes affected the car. Take special care of your tires, remember, the tire temp is the telltale clue as to how your car is set up, and how you are driving it. Attempt to make all tires as equal in temp as possible, and slightly over 200 when hot. This can vary alot, and is not always possible, but is a general rule of thumb. Use my Quikfix Guide if you are having problems setting up the car.
(NASCAR2) This is pretty easy...go the the "multiplayer", then select network type. Click on "dial" if you want to join another race, "answer" if you want to host a race. Then hit "connect". Remember, you must have a "multi.lst" as a driver's list, with a full 39 cars in it. If you don't, it will give you an error. If you are running on NROS, you don't even have to do this, it will drop you straight into a race when you connect. When playing over the internet, make sure that you have a decent connection with your internet service provider, and have decent ping times. You must have 500 or below to have a decent race. 3-400 is preferrable. If you are running another background program that is using your internet connection (Netscape, Explorer, ICQ, ect.) you should close these programs before attempting to race. They will cause your pings to be much worse than they really are.
How do I get a screenshot? - NASCAR 1, hit the "Print screen" key, and it will drop a .pcx file into the /NASCAR directory. In N2, use the "\" key. N3/NL, use "Print Screen".
How do I add a track by editing the calendar? - Each line of the calendar file is a race...and here's what they look like. In older versions of NASCAR Racing (1,2) the file was just called 'calendar'. N99 and N3/NL use files with the extension of .cal. To add a track to N3/NL, you have to edit the file called "all.cal" On the N1 calendar, the first two numbers refer to the date of the race. (25th of February). The next number refers to the 2nd race parameter (which can be found in the "daytona.txt" file in the /tracks/daytona directory). If it's set to a "1", that means use the number of laps for the 2nd race, not the first race. Both of those numbers can be found on the line "LAPS" in the Daytona.txt file. Then word "DAYTONA" *MUST* refer to the same name that the track directory is called. If not, the race will not load. On N2, the first number refers to the race number, as in which order it comes in the season. The next parameters are all identical to N1 (see above). The "Atlanta_500" refers to what the race will be called in the Quick Race and Season menus. With the BGN Pack, the fields are identical until you get to field nine, the "328" above. This designates the amount of laps in that race. Then the next two fields are the names of the small picture and big picture to be used in the NASCAR2 quick race and championship menus. The calender file must be named .cal for the BGN Pack N2 to see it. The easiest way to get new lines to the calendar (back it up first, so you don't mess it up) is to copy a line, then add it to the end, and change the name of the track to the name of the new track that you installed. By "name", we mean the name of the directory that the track belongs in, not the actual name of the track. Example: If you add Sears Point 97 to your calendar, and then copy the line from the Dover race, then add it at the bottom (but above the XXXXXX line). Rename "DOVER" to "SEARS97" (the name of the track directory for Sears Point 97). Done. If it all went well, the track will show up in your quick race menu. How do I edit the track files? - Here is the pertinent info on (trackname).txt files that can be found in the /tracks/(trackname) directory. Thanks to Corey Rueckheim for putting this together. Be aware that modifying some of these values can make your tracks illegal in some network races. TNAME (Track Name)- This keyword has one parameter which is the name that is used to refer to the track within the game. It is displayed in the track selection window during track selection. The track selection window changes size to be just wide enough to contain the track name with the greatest width. The PITSP (Pit Speed) - This keyword appears only in NASCAR Racing 2. It has one parameter which specifies the pit speed in miles-per-hour. SPDWY (Speedway Attributes) - This keyword has three parameters. The first parameter specifies whether or not a restrictor plate is used on your car at this track. If the value is a '0', your car doesn't use a restrictor plate. If the value is '1', your car does use a restrictor plate. This will NOT affect the computer controlled cars in any way. The second and third parameters specify the beginning and end of the pit window. The pit window is the range in laps that the computer controlled cars will race before they will go in for a pit stop. I have not found the last two parameters in IndyCar Racing tracks, so I assume it is not used there. I also do not know if restrictor plates
work in IndyCar Racing or in IndyCar Racing II. I also don't know what will happen if you specify anything other than '0' or '1' for this parameter. LENGT (Track Length) - This keyword has one parameter, which specifies the distance of the track. It doesn't actually affect the size of the track, only what is displayed in the track information window that is displayed when you select the track from within the game. The value assumes three decimal places, for example 2500
would be a distance of 2.500 miles. LAPS (Laps) - This keyword has two parameters. These two parameters play a major part in determining the number of laps for races held at this track. Each value represents a possible number of laps for a race at this track with a RACE LENGTH of 100% specified within the game. If the SINGLE RACE option is chosen within the game, the first parameter is the number of laps the race will be at 100%. If CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON is chosen, it is slightly more complicated. Each race in a CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON is specified by a line in the CALENDAR file in the game directory. Each line has a value that specifies which LAPS parameter to use to determine the number of laps for the race. If the value in the CALENDAR file is '0', the first parameter will be used, and if the value is '1', the second parameter will be used. If '0' is specified and no parameter is defined, if '1' is specified and a second parameter is not defined, or if any values other than '0' or '1' are used in the CALENDAR file, it will result in the same situation as described below for when the LAPS keyword is omitted entirely from the track.txt file. Useful values for each parameter range from '3' to '2147483647'. The actual number of laps for a race is determined by taking the RACE LENGTH percentage from within the game, times the value of the LAPS parameter used
for this race as explained above. Each race automatically has a minimum of '3' laps. If the LAPS keyword is omitted, or if no parameters are specified, the race length value within the game remains unchanged from when it was last set. For example, let us pretend to remove the LAPS keyword line from the file BRISTOL.TXT. If you go to the track selection screen and have ATLANTA highlighted, and the number of laps at ATLANTA is '25', and then you hit the down arrow on the keyboard to highlight BRISTOL, which doesn't have LAPS specified, '25' will be the value used for the number of laps. This little tid-bit of knowledge is absolutely useless to the best of my knowledge, but I discovered it and thought it was amusing enough to share. FNAME (Formal Name) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the formal name used for this
track. CITYN (City Name) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the name of the city closest to the track. COUNT (Country Name) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the name of the country in which
the track is located. PACEA (Pace Alignment) - This keyword has a variable number of parameters. The first parameter specifies the number of columns the cars line up in for the pace lap. The second parameter indicates the position on the track where the pace lap begins. The next X parameters (with X being the value used for the first parameter) specify the distance each column of cars is from the center of the track, starting with the inside row, and ending with the outside row. Following these parameters is the last parameter which always seems to be a '0'. I am not sure what it is for. QUAL (Qualifying) - This keyword has two parameters. The parameters depend on which type of track this is. For NASCAR Racing tracks, the first parameter should always be a '2'. Specifying '1' prevents the LAP INFO window (the pop-up window that you get when you hit F1) from showing any info. Specifying '0' prevents
you from qualifying entirely. For IndyCar Racing II tracks, the first parameter determines whether the qualifying procedure will be a timed open session or a specific number of laps. A value of '0' means that it will be a
timed open session, and a value of '1' means that it will be a specific number of laps. For NASCAR Racing tracks, the second parameter specifies how many qualifying laps each driver gets during qualifying. All laps must be
completed for any one of the laps to be counted for qualifying, which means will be placed at the end of the race field if you exit qualifying at Talladega after the first lap, with this parameter set to '2'. For IndyCar Racing II tracks, if the qualifying procedure was specified as a timed open session, the second parameter specifies the number of minutes each driver gets to spend driving qualifying laps. If the qualifying procedure was specified as a specific number of laps, the second parameter works the same way that it works for NASCAR Racing tracks. GFLAG (Green Flag) - This keyword has one parameter, which defines the location of the pole sitter when the green flag is to be dropped. Reports exist of this keyword not working for certain tracks (Talladega, Sears Point). TTYPE (Track Type) - This keyword has one parameter, which specifies what type of track this is. The only known effect this has in the game is the speed of the pace lap. CARS (Number Of Cars) - This keyword has two parameters. The first parameter doesn't seem to do anything, so my best guess is that it specifies the number of cars allowed to to make qualifying attempts for each race at this track. The second parameter specifies how many cars are on the track for each race at this track, including the pace car, and your car. This number overrides the NUMBER OF OPPONENTS setting within the game, meaning you can't set NUMBER OF OPPONENTS to '38' and expect to race against 38 other cars at Bristol without
changing the second parameter to the CARS keyword first. BLAP (Best Lap) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the time (in seconds) it takes the fastest computer cars to make a lap during qualifying. Three decimal places are assumed so '23849' would mean 23.849 seconds. BLAPT is for the Craftsman Truck best lap (set slightly lower). RELS (Relative Strength) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the percent of the speeds defined in the LP files that the cars will attempt to achieve. This will increase the speed the cars attempt during pace laps and pit stop too, so increasing this may allow computer players to break the pit lane speed limit (which you cannot get away with). RELST is for the Craftsman Trucks again. TIRES (Tires - Goodyear) - This keyword has seven parameters. This keyword doesn't appear in IndyCar Racing tracks. This keyword is used to define the characteristics of Goodyear tires. The first parameter defines the grip for the left side tires. The second parameter describes the heat generated by the left side tires. The third parameter specifies the tread life of the left side tires. The fourth parameter defines the grip for the right side tires. The fifth parameter specifies the heat generated by the right side tires. The sixth parameter specifies the tread life of the right side tires. I have no idea what the seventh parameter is for. Increasing the grip values increases the grip of the tires. Increasing the heat values increases the heat generated by the tires. Increasing the the tread life values increases the life of the tires. Increasing grip increases heat and decreases tread life and decreasing
grip decreases heat and increases tread life. TIREST is for the Craftsman trucks. TIRES2 (Tires - Hoosier/Firestone) - This keyword has seven parameters. This keyword doesn't appear in IndyCar Racing or NASCAR Racing II tracks. This keyword is the same as the TIRES keyword, except TIRES2 refers to the characteristics of Hoosier tires in NASCAR Racing, and for Firestone tires in IndyCar Racing II. How do I put new cars, car bodies or drivers in the game? - In N1, just import a new car, or paint one, and change the driver's name in the info screen. Very simple. In N2, a bit harder. If you have a new .car file, this is easy...just drop it into the /cars directory, and add it to one of your driver's lists in the "driver info" menu. If it comes as a .pcx, a bit harder. The N2HQ program (found in our workshop) will allow you to edit a driver, and import any .pcx to another one. However, if you are not using that, it's a bit harder. Remember this format...(driver).car = X(driver).pcx. In another words, to import a new car body into the paintkit, the .pcx file must have the same name as the car you are importing to, with an "X" in front. So m_martin.car would need a Xm_marti.pcx to import. Remember, no more than 8 characters, and the .pcx file must be in the /nascar2 directory. If you want to import a new driver's picture, it must be a .pcx file, and be the same name as the car, and it must be in the /nascar2/cars directory. So the m_martin.car would need a m_martin.pcx file found in the /nascar2/cars directory to import the new driver's picture. The picture must be stuck to one of the blank.pcx files which can be found in the /nascar2/cars directory, otherwise the palatte will go awful. To add a new car body, just place the file called "cars.dat" into the /cars directory.
How do I add new setups? - If downloaded as an .stg file from the web, all you have to do is drop the setu in the correct track directory that the setup is for, and it will show up in the 'setups' menu. If it is a .txt file, you will have to create a new setup, then type in the values by hand.
What are some of the in-car keys? - "Alt-b" is to turn "Auto-braking" on or off. "Alt-s" is for Auto-shift. In NASCAR 2, you also have "Alt-O", which will tell you your lap times as you come across the S/F line, and "Alt-L", which will tell you when the leader of the race crosses the S/F line. Alt-b no longer works in N3/NL, but now you have CTRL-Y, which allows you to get in-game connection info (multiplayer).
How do I add new tracks? - Fairly easy. All you have to do is create a new directory under the /tracks directory, with the same name as the .dat file of the track you will be adding. Place all the files into that new directory, and then add that track to the calendar (see above for calendar info). Presto! New track...
How do I paint my own cars? - This will be a bit more detailed. I will not go into how to do it in the NASCAR Paintkit, that should be painfully obvious. However, here's how to paint a car using the outside sources. Paintshop Pro is one of the best tools, so go into the game, export the car you want to work on, and go to work. Make sure that you first create a palatte of the car you are painting (Colors menu, save palatte). Then begin work. First put on the base coat of the car color that you want to use, and any other main colors for the color schemes. Make sure that you do not convert the car from 256 color to anything else. Also, use the same colors from the NASCAR palatte, you can download Chris Frederick's Paintshop Assistant from the workshop area, it has a nice "dipping well" to get the proper colors from. If you want to stick on decals from outside sources, open them in Paintshop, crop off anything you don't want to stick on the car, then make sure they are the correct size. Now go to the "colors" menu, and "load palatte". This will convert the decal to the N2 palatte. Then do a "edit", "copy", then select the car, and "paste transparent". If something doesn't show up , use "paste as new selection". Move it to where you want it, and then "selections", "select none". Continue this. To "feather" the edges of stuff to make the car look more realistic, you MUST crop just the white part of the car picture, with the car body, off from the rest of the car picture. Save as a new file. Now go to "colors", "increase color depth", "16 million colors". Now you can use the "smoothing" tool to smooth rough edges. Before you paste the car back into the original car picture, you must convert it to the car palatte, using the steps above. If you had not cropped the car body from the original picture, you would have corrupted the palatte of the original car (found in the tiny color lines at the bottom of the picture). Now go back into the game, and import your newly painted car back into it's original spot.
What kind of hardware should I have? - We will have even more detailed stuff on this later, but suffice it to say, more money, better hardware = faster times. This is just like real racing, so get used to it. Get a decent video card (Rendition may be good, or some of the new 3dfx cards) with a decent amount of RAM. Get a 32-bit sound card, with onboard memory, you will thank me for this later. A P100 will run the sim decently (provided you didn't get a crappy motherboard or something), but really, you need P166 or better to start turning decent lap times. And of course, MMX will help. The more memory you have, the better it will run, and I would say a minimum of 24 for N2 is what you want. 16 Meg for N1 (minimum). Wheels? Your choice. While many use the Thrustmaster wheels, several others out on the market have gotten good reviews. You decide what you want. Always get a good set of pedals, if possible. Your lap times will improve with the smooth transition in corners, as opposed to the "on-off" of a joystick or just wheel.
How do I change cars or drivers? - In N1, basically, the first car in the set after the pace car is yours, so if you want to change it, either export a car, rename it, then import it back into the first slot - or - you can just repaint it. In N2 it's much easier, as to driver a car, all you have to do is move it to the first position in the current driver's list you are using. Several keys that aren't noted much are the "<" and ">" keys, which can be used to move a car up and down the list after it's been highlighted. As well, if you hit the "a" key, it will ask to sort the current driver's list by name, or, if you hit "s", it will ask to sort them by number. You can also use the "delete" key to remove a car permanently from the left-hand list. Pretty handy...
How do I convert tracks from ANY Papyrus sim (ICR1/ICR2/CART, N1/N2/N3/N99/N50th/NLegends, GPL) to another Papy sim? For ICR1 to N1 or visa-versa, look in our archives for the converters. For almost everything (except GPL) to ICR2/CART or NASCAR2/99, we have some free/demo converters in our editors area of the stock car section, and our ICR2 archives page, and our GPL page has some demo ones.
Can I convert tracks between a non-Papyrus sim (Need for Speed, ect) to a Papy sim? No. No way, no how, at least with the current level of technology.
NASCAR3
What IS compatable between N2/N99 and N3/NL? Since N2/N99/N3/NL are all built from a similar engine, quite a bit, but then again, not alot! N2 and N99 are very close to each other, and N3 and NL are very close. Cars cannot be moved over between N2/N99 and N3/NL, but they can be moved between each other, i.e. between N2 and N99. Tracks can (see above),some screens cannot, cockpits cannot, nor can car bodies. So really, only tracks can move between N3 and N2, and setups.
Are the chassis 1,2, and 3 different now? Yes, they are, but not in the way that everyone thinks. Papyrus changed the logos between NASCAR 1999 and NASCAR3..between 'chassis 1, 2, 3' to 'chassis 1, 2 ,3', but in a different order. This was a rather unenlightened step to take, because it only confused many people without explaining what really went on.
The chassis 1, 2, 3 refer to Ford, Pontiac, Chevy from N1 and N2. They really only reflect aerodynamic styles, as chassis 1 has better front downforce, but less rear downforce, chassis 2 is evenly balanced, chassis 3 has more rear downforce. Now, between N2 and N99 the logos were changed from the 'Ford, Pontiac, Chevy' logos (which the filenames still reflect) to 'chassis 1' ect. This was apparently because the cost of liscensing the respective manufacturer's logos and names had went up. So then chassis 1 referred to the older Ford, ect. BUT, now in N3 the logos swap once again! What changed? Only the picture on the ford.pcx, pontiac.pcx and chevy.pcx file. And why? Because the newer Ford Taurus has BETTER rear downforce than the modern Chevy Monte Carlo (the Chevrolet Lumina was the car of choice for the GM teams when the original NASCAR Racing was released!), and so on. So the *real* cars have changed their aerodymamics, and Papyrus' easy fix to reflect the change was to swap the logos. Of course, the logos only say 'chassis 1', ect anyway, so this was a rather illogical move. At any rate, if you imagine that chassis 1 really means - high front downforce, chassis 2 means even downforce, and chassis 3 means - high rear downforce, you'll soon figure out what car you want to run per what track...this is the N99 layout.
NASCAR Legends
Why can I not change the manufacturers by clicking on the car?? Since NASCAR Legends supports two 3do shapes (actually four), you cannot just change your manufacturer by clicking on the car, you have to create a new one with a different manufacturer. However, you can see the difference between your short-track and big-track car by clicking on the nose of the car in the picture in the driver's menu.
3 15 0 0 ATLANTA (NASCAR 1)
3 15 10 0 0 ATLANTA Atlanta_500 Atlanta_ 500 (NASCAR 2)
4 3 15 0 0 ATLANTA Atlanta_500 Atlanta_500 328 event1.pcx biglogo1.pcx (BGN Pack/N3/NL)
VALUE TRACK TYPE PACE SPEED
----- ---------- ----------
'0' Short Oval 40 mph
'1' Mid Oval 55 mph
'2' Large Oval 70 mph
'3' Superspeedway 90 mph
'4' Road Course 70 mph
'5' Unknown Unknown
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