NASCAR Heat 3

There are 38 challenges in Nascar Heat 3. The majority of them are straightforward, as you relive or recreate history at each track. Don’t be afraid to cheese them, as there is no penalty for driving recklessly. For example, there is a 1v1 challenge against John Hunter Nemechek I struggled with until I just dumped him into the grass. The same goes if you need to block the field to win, just try to wreck a few of them until they fall too far behind to catch up. Below I have listed a few challenges that took me multiple attempts. I will explain what I did to finally pass the challenges, in hopes that it’ll help you if you’re struggling.

If you need to, you can actually use custom setups in the challenges, making them much easier to complete. To do this, you need to first enable setups in the settings menu. Under settings, turn off stability help and then choose to always use custom setups. You also need to have practice/qualify enabled in the settings menu (it's enabled by default). After that, you can go to that specific track in Quick Race and setup your car. For example, if the challenge is a Cup challenge at Pocono, load up Pocono in the Cup series in Quick Race and the copy the setup. Make sure you save before exiting! You will automatically use the setup saved in Challenge Mode. I did all but one challenge without a setup, but if you want to make your life easier, try that. I personally used Knee Pit Gaming’s setups on Youtube. CLICK HERE for a link to his channel. Keep in mind that he uses a race wheel, so his setups may be a tad tough to control. If you are struggling to control his setups, try changing the tire chamber from -10/10 to -5/5.

Tips for specific challenges:

• #14: Here’s Johnny – You start dead last and have 10 laps to make it to the front at Eldora. You’ll need to find the preferred line, which is around the middle of the corners. Take a look at where the AI are running, to give you an idea of where to run. You can also get away with never letting off the gas the entire way around the track. You need to be absolutely perfect for 10 consecutive laps, never once slightly spinning your tires.
   
• #18: Phoenix Rising – This might seem like common knowledge, but make sure you only take fuel, and not tires. You need to manually put no tires when the pit screen comes up. If you take tires, on accident or purpose, you will not make it to 5th place in time to complete the challenge.
   
• #24: Lady Luck – This one is an interesting one. I kept restarting the challenge because I could never get better than 3rd. I decided to play it to the end since I was so close, and it turns out the leaders all wreck in the final corner! I tested it a second time, making my way to 5th, and all four leaders wrecked again! I’m not sure how far you actually have to make it before the final corner, but at least fifth will do as the leaders will wreck.
   
• #29: Iconic – This one is actually pretty tough. If you’re not good at Pocono, I’d recommend practicing as each of the three corners are completely different. At the beginning of the challenge, perfect your corners and keep calm if you feel like you’re not making up any time. Kahne falls off extremely hard in the last couple of laps of this challenge. Even then, you might get passed for 2nd before even catching Kahne and lose that way. What I had to do was let 3rd place pass me, and then draft him the entire challenge. You will both catch Kahne on the final lap, in which you need to make a crazy good corner to pass both of them. It took me over an hour to beat this challenge, and I got lucky because I needed to plow Kahne in the final corner, and he took out first place as well. Once again, if you cannot seem to get close to securing this challenge, look into a Pocono setup.
  • It has also been brought to my attention by PST.org user Marchrius75 that you do not actually have to win the race to pass the challenge. As long as you pass Kasey Kahne, you can finish at least second and you will get credit for the challenge.
• #34: Leapfrog – This is the hardest challenge by far, and I seriously do not think it can be completed without a setup. I must have tried at least 20 times, never getting close (3rd was my best). As soon as I put on Knee Pit Gaming’s Taggart setup, I beat it first try, and by a mile. Save yourself the pain and just put the setup on immediately, and you won’t struggle with this one at all.

Do note that there are free DLC challenges that are not required for these achievements; you only need to complete the original 38.