Good game, but on the track action could've been a little better.
-Career mode is wonderful. You can hire a pit crew based on their speed, skill, and potential. You can hire sponsors but keep in mind that bigger names require more out of you. Career mode also keeps track of the condition of your cars, whether they've been used a lot or torn up. Also use the mode to enhance your cars horsepower, durability, and try to reduce wear and increase grip.
-Full field of drivers from teh 2002 season and 2001 paint schemes for most drivers.
-Relatively accurate tracks based on real life.
-Season mode available for those who don't want the depth of career mode.
-Lightning challenges are fun and challenging.
-Excellent damage modeling, especially with the graphics that show how severely your car hit the wall (or your friend).
-Multiplayer is a wortwhile part of the game.
The Bad:
-On track action is rather dull. The A.I. spin out at random times and all of the crashes look totally awkward and unexciting. Cars rarely spin out. Instead, they'll just wobble back and forth (holding up everyone behind them) until they gain control. This leads to pretty lame physics. Cars never get loose, no matter how many adjustments you make.
-I lose a lot of time making pit stops because the other cars get away with speeding at the beginning of pit road.
-Drafting effect is WAY too strong. I can never break away from any car unless I make them wobble.
-Only 19 or 9 cars (depends on how many human players) allowed in one race if you're doing multiplayer.
-Car setup is seemingly useless, with the exception of changing gear ratios or going to a manual transmission.
Overall, Nascar Thunder 2003 is a game that suffers in several spots on the track but makes up for it with plenty to do off of it. I would say don't bother with it anymore unless you want a cheap game.