The History of NASCAR Cover Curses

for many years the cover curse has been etched in the minds of many sports fans no matter what you watch the NFL NBA NHL MLB there is always going to be an athlete daunting the cover of your guys's video game in some years their seasons end up spectacular while in others they completely fall off a cliff NASCAR is no exception to this and over the years they have a ton of well-known drivers on the cover of their very own gaming project this has led to some mixed results but in today's video we're gonna just talk about the bad without further ado this is the history of the NASCAR cover curse so let's get into it [Music] [Applause] [Music] bill Elliot's NASCAR challenge a video game released on the Microsoft ms-dos in 1990 and then later released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 91 this is kind of interesting because it had two separate release states on two different consoles in two years this is the very first video game to ever secure the NASCAR license it was also the first to feature a real-life NASCAR driver in Bill Elliott unfortunately being the sports first cover athlete had some consequences 1990 was a very off season by Bill Elliott standards up to this point he was viewed as a perennial championship contender but this season he slipped in a two-year span he went from fourth to eleventh in the standings and unfortunately the ninety season ended with the tragic passing of one of his crew members did you know Kyle Petty had a video game well if not that's fine because most didn't either Kyle Petty's no fear racing released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995 there were two different versions an American version and a Japanese version the Japanese version of the game was released under the title circuit USA it was the same game but the cover just didn't have Kyle Petty's likeness it's important to note that season he did in fact get his eighth and final career Cup Series win at Dover outside of that win it was a complete disaster only one top five coming from that very victory five top tens an average finish of twenty five point six along with ten DNFs and a 30th place points finish let's get to some console games that most of us know II a sports it's in the game NASCAR Thunder 2003 the sixth installment of EA Sports NASCAR racing series was NASCAR Thunder 2003 it was released on September 19th for the Xbox and September 29th for the PlayStation 2 on the cover was none other than NASCAR's most popular driver up to that point Dale Earnhardt jr. the first nine races were a complete roller coaster finishes outside the top 15 to start off the season at Daytona Rockingham in Vegas were the story but from the fourth race at Atlanta to the ninth race at Talladega he was able to manage all the way from 25th to fifth in the standings quickly as the season got rolling everything got back on track up until his violent wreck at Fontana we all know now that this hit to the wall gave jr. one of his first concussions in the Cup Series but at the time nobody knew the only person to know of any of these symptoms was Dale jr. himself and for about a month and a half he kept this hidden from his competitors his family and the sanctioning body as a whole essentially he wasn't the same driver after that hit and fell as low as 17th in the standings come summer time this ended his title hopes really quick and by the time Kansas rolled around in the fall he straight-up told USA Today that he had raced several weeks with a concussion the reaction and the garage and two fans was not only filled with shock but also disappointment this change comes on the heels of a story in USA Today and an Associated Press story in which Dale Earnhardt jr. said he drove for several races with a severe concussion after this crash at California on April 28 Earnhardt was not hospitalized after the crash and under NASCAR's old policy was eligible to race the following week now Earnhardt says for several weeks his reactions were slowed that he had trouble telling the team what the car was doing are you disappointed in day learning okay that's that's fair to say yes I am I think in today's environment that that the competitors on the racetrack should share in the desire for everybody that they're competing against to be right II a sports it's in the game I'm bill Weber I'm in the game NASCAR 2005 chase Panic up NASCAR 2005 chase for the Cup the eighth installment by EA Sports the career mode in this game changed drastically compared to its predecessors the Thunder Series had a basic you own a team you have to build it from the ground up for 20 seasons in order to compete for championships but NASCAR 2005 took it to a whole nother level you immediately got to race Ryan Newman who for some reason has your number and decides to call you after beating him to offer you his modified ride that's great for us because the game is gonna be a whole lot funner to play but as for its cover driver that's another story Kevin Harvick was selected as that season's cover driver and at first was looking like a chase favorite but unfortunately his antics on the track kept overshadowing his success up to this point Harvick was known as a bit of a hothead but he took it to the next level in no four run-ins with Kenseth and Kahne caused a lot of buzz around the sport and to make matters worse towards the end of the season at Bristol competing for a chase spot he has one of the most bizarre sequence of events happened to him during it can wear you out physically Kevin Harvick's norms are asleep he's looking for a backup driver so anybody that he almost has a wreck in front of him to get the caution but he's looking for a backup right right now because he cannot operate his vehicle the next caution after that report they immediately pull him out and he's replaced by former cover athlete Kyle Petty in the end Harvick wouldn't end up making the chase and to add insult to injury he lost a total of seven spots now that is an epic collapse he a sports it's in the game the ninth installment of the series NASCAR o six total team control now you're probably wondering wait a minute there's two drivers on here so who gets the cover curse well let me explain when you first get the game you have to play this prologue story where Johnson and Gordon have to beat the Dei tandem of Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt jr. in that season's Pepsi 400 it's kind of unrealistic to me as Gordon's taking the lead while Johnson's helping him the fans go nuts I can tell you right away in 2005 when Gordon was taking the lead from jr. that was not happening at all anyways Johnson ends up drifting in front of Mikey Mikey ends up turning him Johnson ends up in the wall flips on a side and you have to use the swap feature in order to get the win for not only Jeff Gordon by Hendrick Motorsports essentially you're taking one for the team since Johnson took one for the team in the prologue the game cover curse automatically goes to Jeff Gordon Johnson celebrating on the inside because he knows what's up the 2005 season began in typical Jeff Gordon fashion three wins and the first nine races but come summertime he was dipping performance-wise a ton of mistakes wrecks and mechanical failures became the new norm and by the time the chase rolled around Jeff Gordon was the biggest guy on the outside looking in [Music] people ask the c-pen to flash before my eyes burning rash I tell them pretty much our streets of metal asphalt in those guys and fireproof suits and people ask me all the time how in the hell did elliott sadler get on a game cover the 10th edition nascar o 7 is amazing and I'm not really gonna talk about the game I'm just gonna leave a link to kamikaze games video in the description it is a very detailed review video go check it out after this video is done on this one I'm just gonna focus solely on the cover driver don't get me wrong Elliott Sadler three career Cup Series victories made the inaugural chase for the Cup in 2004 a very good Xfinity driver competing for Championships it's not necessarily a knock on him but a knock on PA Sports themselves I don't know what the selection process was for this particular game but I don't think it was very thought-out Elliott Sadler was bad in 2006 it was a combination of him racing way passes Prime and the mismanagement of Robert Yates racing how bad will bad enough that by the time the game is released to the public he's already with a brand new team ea sports probably realized they made a huge mistake and it turned out to be a marketing disaster [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well here we go again NASCAR Oh nein the final installment by EA Sports this is a very underwhelming game there's no manufacturer recognition whatsoever the ps2 version was just straight-up awful game mode features on the ps3 edition lack to its predecessors Jeff Gordon is once again back on the cover so you know what time it is it's time for the curse 2008 on paper looks like another good season but by Jeff Gordon's standards he was extremely off the back problems caused that the Vegas incident didn't help his case and even though he made that season's chase for the Cup he seemed to be a shell of his former self compared to 2007 from Charlotte Motor Speedway DW I don't know if I've ever seen a race like this got to be a record for lead lap it's Tony Stewart Petric around the trevor bayne if you're gonna do a cover vote you already know damn well that Darren our junior is gonna win lights out that's what NASCAR the game inside line did in 2012 when in a cover vote Dale Earnhardt jr. won by a landslide almost ten years after his last cover appearance Dale Earnhardt jr. enters the 2012 season as a championship favorite again he starts off the season strong finally breaking that long-awaited winless streak but then it was the exact same he goes from great to good and then in the end he is forced to sit out because of concussion issues if any other publishing company is thinking of ever putting Dale Earnhardt jr. on the game again hear me out don't do it he always ends up hurt they'll set out the next two races to allow his head to heal but in doing so he finished last in the chase for NASCAR 14 by you technics Tony Stewart was on the cover but I'm not gonna touch this one most of us diehard fans already know what happened that year it was a combination of bad performance on the track followed by some tragedy off of it I feel because of the circumstances that took place it wouldn't be good to go in full detail but because he was on the cover that year I have to address it for a moment and finally the worst NASCAR game of all time NASCAR heat evolution unfortunately Carl Edwards had to be the cover driver on this terrible game and look what happened the worst of the worst he loses a championship and ends up retiring if you're not convinced it's the worst game in NASCAR history this should confirm it and once again that'll do it for another video thank you guys so much for watching this is black lives matter catch you next time

Channel: Black Flags Matter

Views: 191,705

Keywords: nascar, video games, nascar video games, cover curses, nascar cover curses, cover curse history, nascar gaming, nascar video game history, nascar history, sports, sport, sporting video games, racing, motorsports, auto racing, sim racing, black flags matter, nascar black flags matter, the history of nascar cover curses, nascar youtubers, nascar youtube, nascar on youtube, nascar videos, nascar content, nascar video gaming, nascar 07, nascar 09, nascar thunder games, nascar 06

Id: FU8mCxuspF8

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2020