Video game development is full of names that have made groundbreaking steps you’ve never even heard about. Shawn Nash is a behind-the-scenes pioneer responsible for SODA Off Road Racing’s incredible physics, Papyrus’ graphical advancements and iRacing’s use of laser scan data for the physical track surfaces.
This interview with RSC, published in 2021, details his early life and career, through both his own company, Papyrus, Electronic Arts, to his time at iRacing.
Better known today as the developer of Skyrim and Fallout, Bethesda once had a well-respected racing game franchise and were deep into development of a licensed Skip Barber Racing title that never released.
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NASCAR Racing 2 is a 1996 racing video game by Papyrus Design Group based on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series of the same year, with a later addon for the 1997 Busch Grand National Series. It featured many drivers, Gen-4 chassis and tracks from both series.
Papyrus developed this title and released multiple NASCAR-based video games with incremental changes up until their transition to the “GPL engine” used in NASCAR Racing 4.
Daytona, Indianapolis from the Cup schedule and Daytona, Vegas, Homestead from the Busch schedule were not officially available for this product.
1998
Papyrus presents the award-winning NASCAR® Racing 2, the finest NASCAR racing simulation in the world! Don’t believe us? Listen to the pros:
“Why am I so good at this? I’m in my basement, every weekend, playing NASCAR Racing 2!”
[spacer] — Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Busch Series driver
“It doesn’t get more realistic than this!”
[spacer] — Randy LaJoie, NASCAR driver
“Race NASCAR2 on the computer…!!!”
[spacer] — Bobby Labonte, NASCAR driver
[spacer] (exclamation points are his)
Race on 16 different tracks, all modeled after the real thing using official blueprints. Tracks include Bristol, Darlington, Talladega, Michigan, and more…!
Tracks
On release NASCAR Racing 2 included 16 tracks while the Busch Grand National Addon Pack included 12 more tracks.
About RSC
A site by a sort of sim racer, for sim racers, about racing sims. News and information on both modern and historic sim racing software titles.
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Join Jon Denton, Tim Wheatley and Simon Croft as they discuss sim racing and racing games past, present and future.