TrackMania Nations

TrackMania Nations is a race game displayed in a third-person view. It follows the arcade-focused concept established by the two previous games in the series, contrasting with the gameplay of competing racing games that focus on simulation and precision. Specifically, there are still no collisions between cars. Cars pass through each other like ghost vehicles if their trajectories cross or overlap.

Players race alone on the track in both multiplayer and single-player modes, so it is impossible to touch or push an opponent. The game offers only one car with unique handling and no adjustments, apart from the distinctive body color representing each nation. Nations uses a simple control system with four buttons for braking, accelerating, and steering, as well as two additional buttons for restarting the game. There is also a horn.

TrackMania Nations was developed by Nadeo, "in close collaboration with the World Cup organizers, who brought all their expertise from the competition to the video game." Development began in 2005 and lasted six months. Even though Nadeo had just released the expansion pack for the second game, Sunrise eXtreme, it announced the release of TrackMania Nations at the end of January the following year.

Florent Castelnérac first encountered the world of esports through his friend Matthieu Dallon, founder of the Electronic Sports World Cup (since renamed the Esports World Convention). He attended this event at the Futuroscope Convention Center in Poitiers, where nearly 400 players competed in games such as Counter-Strike and Quake 4. It was in 2005, during a trip to China for the Chinajoy video game trade show, that he understood the craze for this aspect of video games. Watching the Need for Speed competitions, he thought that TrackMania would be much more suited to esports than Need for Speed.

TrackMania Nations was generally well-received by the specialized press upon its release.

According to PC Open, the gameplay is “easy” to learn. Eurogamer notes that while the gameplay may not be as fast-paced as its predecessor, it is more technical. PC Open believes that Nations fulfills its intended purpose very well, namely competitive gaming. For Giochi per il mio computer, it might seem frustrating at first, but its addictive nature takes over and pushes players to constantly improve their performance.

==== Various amateur and professional competitions ====

In competition, TrackMania is unique in that it requires players to be constantly adaptable and responsive, since although the concept of a collision-free arcade racing game remains largely the same, the maps and races differ in each competition. In contrast, a game like Counter-Strike has offered only the same maps for years.