The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Development
Electronic Arts moved the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game development to a new studio in North Carolina to be able to get better information with the NASCAR teams in an attempt to improve the game. The PlayStation 2 version of the game were still made at the old studio. Due to the development team using certain resources to work on key features in the game, no car manufacturers were present in this year's title. The game was released in North America on June 10, 2008.
In the United Kingdom, it was released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 on June 13, and for PlayStation 3 on June 27. The game shipped in Australia on June 26. A version for mobile phones by EA Mobile was made available on September 25, 2008.
Reception
NASCAR 09 received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.
IGN gave the PlayStation 3 version a score of 5.9/10 and the PlayStation 2 version a score of 5/10. The reviewer noted that the overall presentation was lacking excluding Jeff Gordon's green screen mentoring in the game. He was also generally disappointed with the gameplay, saying, "The controls are decent, and the Sprint Driver Challenges are quite fun. But the racing itself is a tepid, repetitive experience with no flair." They also noted that the PlayStation 3 version suffered from texture rips, clipping and slowdown while the Xbox 360 version had a smoother framerate.
Legacy
This was the final simulation installment of the EA Sports NASCAR series. Electronic Arts has stated they would not make another title due to slumping sales, lack of popularity, and the difficulty of installing any new features. NASCAR Kart Racing was the only NASCAR-themed game produced by EA for the 2009 season. EA's exclusive license as NASCAR's official video game producer expired in 2010.
In September 2010, Activision was announced as the distributor for a NASCAR game, to be developed by Eutechnyx, with direct involvement from NASCAR. The first game, NASCAR The Game: 2011, was released on March 29, 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The EA servers for NASCAR 09 and numerous other EA games were permanently shut down on August 11, 2011.
