Timeline (EA Never Loses NASCAR)

1997-1999: Early Years[]

1997- EA gains rights to NASCAR games and makes NASCAR 98 later that year for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
1998- EA makes NASCAR 99, which debuts on the Nintendo 64 and later the PlayStation to mixed reviews.
1999- EA starts going into the new millennium with NASCAR 2000, which marks EA NASCAR's debut on PC and Game Boy Color.

2000- EA's NASCAR 2001 marks the first NASCAR game on the PlayStation 2, and is also the last game where Dale Earnhardt appears as a driver without being unlocked.
2001- The name of the series expands to NASCAR Thunder, and NASCAR Thunder 2002 marks NASCAR's debut on the Xbox.
2002- NASCAR Thunder 2003 marks NASCAR's debut on the Gamecube.
2004- The EA NASCAR series reverts back to just NASCAR 2005.

2005- The series name changes to just the last two digits of the next year with NASCAR 06.
2006- NASCAR 07 marks NASCAR's debut on the PSP, and is the last game released on 6th gen consoles.
2007- NASCAR races into 7th gen with NASCAR 08 marking NASCAR's debut on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
2008- NASCAR 09 marks NASCAR's debut on mobile phone, and was the last main series NASCAR game before the POD.
2009- NASCAR Kart Racing marks NASCAR's debut on the Wii, and was the last NASCAR game before the POD.
The POD- After the flunk of NBA Elite 11 in 2010, EA decides to cut the NBA Live series of games instead of the NASCAR series. As a result, NASCAR extends their deal with EA to 2015.

2011- NASCAR 2011 most notably has:
- An overhaul of the release dates, now coming out in spring of the same year and featuring same-year cars.
- Only the Sprint Cup Series, due to lack of time for preparing the game.

2012- NASCAR 2012 features the return of the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series, and as a result gets a extremely high rating
2013- NASCAR 2013 introduces the K&N Pro Series for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and also marks NASCAR's debut on the Wii U with the Whelen Modified Tour. The game is later hailed alongside NASCAR 06 as the best NASCAR games of the last decade in 2015.
2014- NASCAR 2014: A New Chase marks NASCAR's debut on the PS4 and the Xbox One with all series from the prior game included.
2015- NASCAR 2015 features an expansion to 24 racers online, but the expansion is a flop as servers start to crash with the overwhelming amounts of players, and EA is quickly forced to release an update to change back to 16 racers. As a result, the game gets extremely mixed reviews, although it is hailed for the new four player split screen.

2016- NASCAR 2016 is a lot like it's predecessor except for adding the Chase to the Xfinity and Truck Series, but the bigger news is that because Dusenberry Martin Racing isn't licensed by NASCAR, they instead make Indycar 16 and plan on making an ARCA game in the future, which leads many to consider 2016 the beginning of the golden era of motorsport gaming.