t’s obvious that NASCAR fans will buy anything. For a fanbase that everyone thinks is a bunch of po’ rednecks, they sure have a lot of money to blow on junk. The Official Doorstop of NASCAR? Put it in the cart. The Official Tampon of NASCAR? Sign me up! By the way, where can I get one with Carl Edwards’ head on it? The only real question is whether fans will buy this year’s game, seeing as how it has no major improvements or features from ‘06.

This game tries some new things, such as giving drivers skill grades depending on the type of track and letting you earn attribute bonuses during a race, but I honestly didn’t see much difference on the track. However, it did seem like cars’ handling was a little easier, and getting tapped in the rear quarter panel is less likely to put you into a spin. But these are small matters. You could make more changes to a chassis in a 13-second pit stop than were made to this title. Where’s the next step in Fight to the Top mode? There are no in-depth off-the-track features. No new teammate commands. This mode is fruitlessly going around in circles worse than Kyle Petty. I will say, however, that I’m thankful that the mode’s long rise up the ladder to the Cup cars is easier thanks to the new Allstate Qualifiers, which is a series of test sessions at different tracks. Do well enough in them and you can jump straight into a Kenny Wallace-owned Busch car.

The one thing that makes this game worth it to NASCAR rubes like you and me is that the new speed blur makes side-by-side racing pretty damn cool. Of course, developer Tiburon missed a huge opportunity to make the racing really awesome when they decided not to include live cougars in the cars (or put Ricky Bobby on the cover), but maybe that’s just the way I like to race. Still, it looks like we’re all going to be on hold for a while until next-gen kicks in.