NASCAR Heat 5

NASCAR Heat 5
Developer: 704Games Publisher: Motorsport Games Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows Released in US: July 10, 2020 (Standard Edition, Windows) This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused graphics. This game has revisional differences.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do: Debug camera.

NASCAR Heat 5 is the final iteration of 704Games/Motorsport Games' iteration of the NASCAR Heat series, released rather quickly (with additions being restricted to addition of car failures and testing schemes) so they could prepare for another reboot, which in a repeat of transition to NASCAR 15 to NASCAR Heat Evolution, ended disastrously yet again, to the point a 2022 season DLC had to be released for this and the reboot title.

A Nintendo Switch port, titled NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+, was released in November 2021, with the addition of 2021 NASCAR Cup Series primary paint schemes. In June 2023, the 2022 Cup roster and an updated version of the previously Xtreme Dirt Tour-exclusive Bristol Dirt track was finally released (having been planned for October 2022), despite being about halfway into the next year's season...

Unused Drivers

A number of unused drivers can be found in NASCARHeat5_Data/StreamingAssets/PC/AssetBundles/CarAppearances/ folder, in form of .rab (Unity asset) files. For most part, most of them contain placeholder paint schemes that are used in pre-race crew-chief/driver meeting videos shown before races, like one here. (These videos, which for the 2021 season and some 2020 races were rendered from iRacing instead, are generally not available to general public, except in 2018 when NASCAR uploaded them to their YouTube channel; additionally, NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass also occasionally tweets snippets of them, usually when it comes to controversial yellow line/track limits rule at races held at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.)

Cup Series

File	Driver	Notes
default_c17_bobby_labonte.rab	Bobby Labonte	Has not driven in the Cup Series since 2016. Possibly a scrapped legend driver, in which he would have been representing the #18 Interstate Batteries car in a Toyota (Joe Gibbs Racing's current manufacturer), as his car is a Toyota (he would be added as such in a DLC for NASCAR 21: Ignition); however, his pit textures has the number 47, which is a reference to his 2011-2013 run with JTG Daugherty Racing, which at the time also ran Toyotas.
default_c17_brennan_poole.rab	Brennan Poole	Drove for Premium Motorsports during the 2020 season; replaced with fantasy driver Bobby Carter as 704Games/Motorsport Games was unable to obtain the license from his team.
default_c17_jamie_mcmurray.rab	Jamie McMurray	Did not drive in the Cup Series during the 2020 season; drove part-time for Spire Motorsports the season prior.
default_c17_landon_cassill.rab	Landon Cassill	Did not drive in the Cup Series during the 2020 season; drove for StarCom Racing the season prior. He appears in the 2022 DLC update, likely with different files.
default_c17_matt_tifft.rab	Matt Tifft	Did not drive in the Cup Series during the 2020 season; drove for Front Row Motorsports the season prior until Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas due to health concerns.
default_c17_parker_kligerman.rab	Parker Kligerman	Did not drive in the Cup Series during the 2020 season; drove part-time for Gaunt Brothers Racing the season prior.
default_c17_paul_menard.rab	Paul Menard	Did not drive in the Cup Series during the 2020 season; drove for Wood Brothers Racing the season prior.
default_c17_reed_sorenson.rab	Reed Sorenson	Drove part-time for various teams during the 2020 season.

default_c17_jj_yeley.rab (J.J. Yeley) was originally unused, but later used for a DLC car that was sponsored by the game itself.

NASCAR Heat Pro League

NASCAR Heat Pro League drivers are treated as Cup Series drivers and as such are stored together with them.

File	Driver	Notes
default_c17_casey_gomme.rab	Casey Gomme	Was not chosen for 2020 eNASCAR Heat Pro League draft; represented Wood Brothers Racing in the 2019 season on Xbox side.
default_c17_greg_matarazzo.rab	Greg Matarazzo	Was not chosen for 2020 eNASCAR Heat Pro League draft; represented Chip Ganassi Racing in the 2019 season on Xbox side.
default_c17_josh_shoemaker.rab	Josh Shoemaker	Was not chosen for 2020 eNASCAR Heat Pro League draft; represented Stewart-Haas Racing in the 2019 season on Xbox side.

Xfinity Series

File	Driver	Notes
default_x17_christopher_bell.rab	Christopher Bell	Did not drive in the Xfinity Series during the 2020 season; drove for Joe Gibbs Racing the season prior.
default_x17_cole_custer.rab	Cole Custer	Did not drive in the Xfinity Series during the 2020 season; drove for Stewart-Haas Racing the season prior.
default_x17_elliott_sadler.rab	Elliott Sadler	Did not drive in the Xfinity Series during the 2020 season; drove twice for Kaulig Racing the season prior.
default_x17_joey_gase.rab	Joey Gase	Drove sporadically for three different teams during the 2020 season.
default_x17_john_jackson.rab	John Jackson	Drove for Rick Ware Racing (#51 and #53; both numbers would switch between Chevrolet and Ford) for most of the 2020 season, as well as one race in the Tommy Baldwin Racing #7 Chevrolet.
default_x17_mario_gosselin.rab	Mario Gosselin	Had not driven in the Xfinity Series since 2017, although he returned in 2021.
default_x17_morgan_shepherd.rab	Morgan Shepherd	Did not drive in the Xfinity Series during the 2020 season; drove for his owner-driver team, Shepherd Racing Ventures #89 Chevrolet, part-time the season prior.
default_x17_stephen_leicht.rab	Stephen Leicht	Drove for Carl Long's MBM Motorsports, alternating between #66, #61 (also used by Austin Hill by Hattori Racing Enterprises), and #13 (all of them in a Toyota) for most of the 2020 season.
default_x17_tyler_reddick.rab	Tyler Reddick	Did not drive in the Xfinity Series during the 2020 season; drove for Richard Childress Racing the season prior.
default_x17_zane_smith.rab	Zane Smith	Did not drive in the Xfinity Series during the 2020 season; drove part-time for Dale Earnhardt Jr's JR Motorsports the season prior.

Camping World Truck Series

File	Driver	Notes
default_t17_dylan_lupton.rab	Dylan Lupton	Drove the #17 DGR-Crosley Ford part-time for last three races during the season.
default_t17_harrison_burton.rab	Harrison Burton	Did not drive in the Truck Series during the 2020 season; drove for Kyle Busch Motorsports the season prior, in his only full-time Truck Series season.
default_t17_korbin_forrister.rab	Korbin Forrister	Drove the #7 (as well as the #17 at Talladega) All Out Motorsports Toyota part-time during the season.
default_t17_kyle_benjamin.rab	Kyle Benjamin	Did not drive in the Truck Series during the 2020 season; drove for Niece Motorsports part-time the season prior.
default_t17_mason_massey.rab	Mason Massey	Did not drive in the Truck Series during the 2020 season; drove for Reaume Brothers Racing part-time the season prior.
default_t17_myatt_snider.rab	Myatt Snider	Did not drive in the Truck Series during the 2020 season; drove for ThorSport Racing part-time the season prior.
default_t17_parker_kligerman.rab	Parker Kligerman	Drove the #75 Henderson Motorsports Chevrolet part-time during the 2020 season. Kligerman is the only driver to have unused files in more than one series.
default_t17_travis_kvapil.rab	Travis Kvapil	Did not drive in the Truck Series during the 2020 season; drove for Beaver Motorsports for one race the season prior.
default_t17_tyler_dippel.rab	Tyler Dippel	Did not drive in the Truck Series during the 2020 season; last drove in 2018.

Unused Paint Schemes

To do: Dump the placeholder schemes. Worcestershirey from the Discord server formerly affiliated with /r/NASCAR has rips of generic Cup Toyota (under Bobby Labonte) and generic Cup Ford (under J.J. Yeley before Yeley's car sponsored by this very game was added).

A handful of unused paint schemes can be found within the unused driver .rab files. Most of them are simply placeholders.

Kyle Larson

Found in alternate_c17_kyle_larson.rab. Due to Larson being switched out with Matt Kenseth early on in the season, and Kenseth never running this scheme, it goes unused. It should be noted that Kenseth's files are all otherwise labeled as Larson's.

Revisional Differences

Matt Kenseth's Driver Model

Somewhere around the July 21/August 13, 2020 patch, Matt Kenseth's driver model was updated to actually use his driver model, instead of Larson's. Kenseth's driver model is directly taken from NASCAR Heat 2, as it has DeWalt logos (Kenseth's 2017 primary sponsor) on his hat.