What makes a good game? Different genres have different criteria. A survival-horror title "works" if it gets my heart rate up and makes me scared to venture down into my own basement. A good RPG should have me lying awake at four in the morning internally debating the merits of a scimitar over a long sword. And what makes for a good racing game? Simple. A top-shelf racing title should temporarily alter the way I drive my real car in real life. NASCAR Thunder 2003 for the Xbox is a monster of a game ... and my whole neighborhood knows it.

NASCAR seldom gets its props from the rest of the racing world. The F1 crowd tools around a track in Monte Carlo in a Ferrari while the NASCAR circuit sends a bunch of good ol' boys out to Rockingham, North Carolina to compete in the "Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400" in a bunch of Chevy and Dodges. Even in the gaming world, NASCAR sims don't carry the same prestige as other titles. What's cooler -- tweaking your sleek-looking, 800-horsepower Italian dream car in Gran Turismo 3 or fiddling with the tire pressure in your Ford Taurus? The folks at EA Sports might not be able to make Rockingham, North Carolina any hipper or more exotic, but they've certainly given NASCAR fans a game that ranks up there with the best.