Most licensed games are mainly designed for the hardcore gamer, and 704 Games has released a couple based on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series — NASCAR Heat Mobile and NASCAR Manager. But if you’re one of those casual gamers who doesn’t need, or feels overwhelmed by more intricate and intense mobile game offerings based on actual sports leagues (and that includes auto racing), NASCAR Rush may be the title you’ve been waiting for. Also by 704 Games, this title is now out on iOS and Android, and it allows you to race as any one of the many real-life NASCAR drivers available in the game, and unlock up to 23 different real-life tracks. You can race in Endless mode or Missions against the game’s AI, or you can test your mettle against other real-life, human players in the Live Events — the choice is yours, and there are a lot of prizes to be won in this game!
As we explained previously, this game focuses more on arcade excitement rather than an immersive simulation of the current NASCAR season and future ones as well. As such, you shouldn’t expect too many fancy tricks up 704 Games’ sleeves with this new title. But given that we spent so much time discussing the game’s beginner’s tips, we’re also acknowledging its underrated depth by bringing to you our NASCAR Rush strategy guide for intermediate to advanced players. Need some tips on how to win Endless Races or what’s in it for you with regards to the cards? We’ve got the lowdown on those topics and more, so keep on reading!
1. An Overview Of Card Collecting
Contrary to what you may have thought as a beginner, the cards you collect in the game do not allow you to race as other drivers apart from the one you’ve chosen as your avatar. We did explain that your choice of driver in NASCAR Rush will be irrelevant at the end of the day, because your base stats will always be the same regardless of whom you choose. So how can you improve your car and help it go on longer runs? The answer to this would be card collection, and we’re going to start off this guide by telling you all you need to know about this very important game mechanic.
For starters, you have paint scheme cards, which feature a specific driver’s car, and you also have driver cards, which feature the driver’s headshot, if available — if not available, such as in the case of newer or less heralded driver, they’ll show up as generic drivers in white helmets and racing suits. The difference between these two is that driver cards have more of an effect on your car’s performance — you’ll notice that they are at higher levels in terms of your car’s four stats, may it be fuel consumption, tire wear, top speed, body armor, or some or all of the above. (There are also sub-stats for those main ones — fuel refill speed, tire change speed, body repair speed, and lane change speed respectively.)
Paint scheme card packs can be bought for cash in the in-game shop, while you’ll have to pay a lot of gold (about 200 units and up) to buy the driver packs. As we previously discussed, you can win at least one card per prize crate by completing the missions. It’s also possible to win new cards while playing Endless Race mode, or by playing the card game, which we shall also feature in this guide.
It’s through the cards you collect that your car becomes better. For example, let’s take a look at Jimmie Johnson’s driver card — if you collect it, then you get an additional 3 levels for lane change speed, 6 levels for tire change speed, and 3 levels for fuel tank capacity. You will, however, need 13 pieces of his card in order to unlock it in full — the rarer a driver or the higher their tier, the more pieces are needed to unlock it, and when you buy packs or win cards, you will often get mere pieces, and not a full card. You will also get four Fragments for unlocking the Jimmie Johnson card in full; Fragments are used to upgrade your own avatar card’s stats, and if you get a full card of one that you already have completely unlocked, you will still get fragments in exchange for the duplicate.
That’s pretty much all we have for the card collecting mechanic in the game, but just as one final friendly reminder, the cards in NASCAR Rush are used for improving your car, and do not give you a chance to race on someone else’s car with different stats!
2. Competing In Endless Race Mode
While it’s the Missions you will be focusing on most of the time when playing NASCAR Rush, you can also take part in the Endless Race mode, which is, as its name suggests, a theoretically endless race where you can earn more cash by going as far as you possibly could. But that’s not the only difference from Missions mode to be aware of — once you run out of fuel, wear out your tires completely, or incur maximum damage to your car, your race is over, and you won’t be given a second chance to continue the run! Cash is the main reward, but you can also win fuel, tokens for the card game, and tickets for the special events — once in a while, you may even end up with a card or card piece!
Winning those other, more interesting rewards is dependent on whether you’re able to meet the conditions the endless in question. For example, you may be asked to race for 5,000 yards, 6,000 yards, 7,000 yards, and so on — this could be quite challenging, as avoiding traffic seems to be harder in here when you’re close to reaching your goal. Additionally, keep in mind that this is the menu where you can unlock new tracks by paying cash — these tracks would require your player level to be at a specific point, and while you can pay gold to unlock them before you level up, we don’t necessarily recommend this, as your gold may be best used when buying new card packs.
You also have five units of fuel for Endless Race, separate from the gas in your car’s tank when you actually hit the track — these refill automatically, or can be won in the card game, but once you’re all out of fuel, you’ll have to wait until your supplies replenish before you can race again in this game mode.
3. Miscellaneous Tips On How To Win In Endless
Although Endless Race and Missions are very similar in terms of how the races work, we mentioned above that there are two key differences — Endless allows you to theoretically race forever (instead of stopping once you have no more missions to complete), but your run does end without any second chances if you crash, run out of fuel, or wear out your tires before heading to the pits. That said, let’s take a look at some pointers for winning in this game mode, and completing the tasks that are asked of you per track.
The tasks in Endless are, as far as we’ve seen, all based on driving a certain distance without crashing, running out of gas, or busting your tires. Since you will first be allowed to pit once you reach about 4,000 to 5,000 yards, we strongly recommend pitting at the soonest possible opportunity if your target is at 7,000 yards or more. Before pitting, drive as carefully as possible — take care not to get your car dinged or bumped in any way, because you want to focus on changing your tires and refueling your gas tank. Don’t focus much on repairing a damaged car unless you’re down to less than 25 percent or so of your car’s hit points. It’s the tires and the fuel that will keep you going in a race, so it’s those two you should be paying the most attention to.
While it’s important to keep your car damage-free as much as possible before heading to the pits, you should also prepare for heavier traffic as you move closer toward your target. There may be a pileup of cars ready to meet you just as you’re extremely close to the required number of yards, and that would require you to maintain your cool and avoid bumping into other cars before the yellow arrows turn green. After that, however, you should be home free, and any additional distance you travel (and money you win) will be icing on the cake, as you collect a variety of other rewards, in most cases, for accomplishing your goal.
Last, but not the least, Endless allows you to win cash, tokens, tickets, and the like by driving over them, but you should not risk a chance at these currencies/resources if it means greater odds of bumping into another car! Chances are you’ll run into them organically, so there’s really no need to chase after them at the expense of getting dinged up and losing some health points.
4. Collect Your Money From, And Upgrade Your Trailer
At first, we hesitated a bit before clicking the Trailer tab on the main menu — that was because, in our silliness, we thought “trailer” referred to a teaser clip for the game. This actually refers to your merchandise trailer, which allows you to collect offline earnings every several hours or so. This could be an unexpected source of income, so make sure you’re upgrading this every now and then — just not too often, as the upgrades get progressively more expensive, and may not be worth it if you’re the type who plays only about once or twice a day.
5. Playing The Card Game
Competing in Endless Races allows you to win tokens, which can be used when playing the card game. Ordinarily, you get one chance to play for free, after which all subsequent games will cost you one token each. It’s very simple — just choose one out of four cards to receive a prize, with each subsequent set of four cards coming with a little twist in the form of a “Game Over” card that does what it says, which is to end your game and forfeit all your prizes. In other words, the goal here is to collect as many prizes as possible, may it be cash, gold, fuel, or cards/card pieces, and collect those prizes at the right time, before you end up with the Game Over card and lose everything.
This may be a game of chance, but the best strategy here is to quit and collect your prizes once you’ve made it to the fourth or fifth round. If you end up with something rarer, such as a fuel unit or a card/card piece, you can quit a bit earlier than that, but the last thing you want to do is to fold after your first prize win (we’ve done that a few times by accident) just because you see a prompt to collect your winnings, or worse, to get greedy at a late round and end up with a Game Over card.
6. Should You Buy Gold With Your Real Money?
If you consider the cost of Driver Card Packs, it can be quite difficult to earn gold in NASCAR Rush. However, it would seem that the cost of gold in the shop is quite affordable, all things considered — for $1.99, you can get a “Small Toolbox of Gold” with 200 units, and also remove ads from the game. (With the exception, of course, of ad videos.) Paying $4.99 or its local equivalent will get you a “Red Toolbox of Gold” with 500 units, and if you pay $9.99 or its equivalent, you can get a “Monthly Subscription” where you will be earning 80 gold a day, or 2,400 units for an entire month! There are more expensive packages available, but it’s the Monthly Subscription that you should be shooting for, if you’re looking to get the best value from your hard-earned money.
7. Complete The Activities And Achievements
The Activities tab may be smaller than most of the others, but this is also a good way to earn some in-game currency, if you complete the three limited-time tasks at hand — you may, for example, be asked to refuel, fix tires, or repair your car by a certain percentage, or drive a certain number of yards. It’s basically stuff you can do within the course of a race, and this time, Missions and Endless Races are considered. Keep on completing those Activities for more currency, and make sure to click on the tab first, so you know exactly what you should be doing!
This one’s also a bit hidden, but if you click on the trophy icon on the right side of your screen, near the top, you will be able to access your Achievements, which may run the gamut from performing near misses, unlocking so many new tracks, driving a certain number of miles, unlocking all drivers from a certain tier, and so on. You can specifically win gold for completing each achievement, and while it won’t be much, it can certainly add up over time as you complete more achievements in NASCAR Rush.
8. Take Part In The Special Live Events
Lastly, the Live Event tab is located on the bottom right, and in here, you can compete against real-life players and win special rewards for performing well in the events. Right now, there isn’t any ongoing live event, but in order to join one, you’ll need to have some Tickets with you, which can be won in Endless mode, or purchased at the store for gold. Make sure you use those tickets within the prescribed period, because Live Events are always synchronized with the actual Monster Energy NASCAR race weekends! You wouldn’t want to miss a chance at some rare stuff just because you weren’t aware of the real-world NASCAR schedule — a simple internet search should give you all the information you need, though the game will also notify you in advance of upcoming events.