NASCAR Heat 5 Plays Best on Ultrawide Curved Gaming Monitors

NASCAR has been going strong for over 70 years, with a major global following. The official video game partner of NASCAR is Motorsport Games, publisher of the popular NASCAR Heat series. The most current title is NASCAR Heat 5, which is especially admired for its accessible yet deep career mode.

NASCAR Heat 5 is continually updated, and as far as we know there won’t be a NASCAR Heat 6 just yet. The game originally covered the 2020 season, but the NASCAR 2021 season is being added to it as the season is ongoing at the time of writing. It’s expected the game series will move on to a new engine, no pun intended, in 2022. Currently, NASCAR Heat 5 runs on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, so it’s easily reachable. The next NASCAR title will most likely add Xbox Series X/S and PS5 to its list of platforms.

In any case, if you’re a dedicated NASCAR fan, you can certainly play NASCAR Heat 5 on a glorious 4K monitor. But real sim aficionados prefer curved monitors for the wider field of view and more encompassing experience. Naturally, BenQ has the ultimate NASCAR Heat 5 monitor in the form of the curved MOBIUZ EX3415R gaming monitor. 

As the official video game of NASCAR, the Heat series enjoys support from all relevant parties. Developers 704Games crafted a title that balances accessibility and authenticity, and constantly add new content, both free and premium. In terms of gameplay, NASCAR Heat 5 allows for lots of customization. That means the experience varies from easy to challenging, based on player preference. Sim racing enthusiasts can adjust in-game settings to create a highly immersive environment, if you’ll excuse the trite use of that adjective.

Also, NASCAR Heat 5 uses a modified version of the proven Unity game engine that runs very well on consoles, and also on PC across a plethora of hardware configurations. NASCAR Heat 5 doesn’t require an overly beefy GPU or lots of RAM or anything like that, but as a pro tip remember to turn on v-sync within the game’s graphics settings to run at over 60Hz. That’s essential if you get the 144Hz EX3415R, which you should. 

In addition to an immersion-boosting curved gaming monitor, you’ll want to get a racing wheel, pedal set, and possibly a racing seat. Other than the monitor, everything else is optional, but highly recommended as we explained a few months back. For NASCAR Heat 5, keep in mind that keyboard and mouse control isn’t officially supported, and the game requires a controller or steering wheel. Which is better, because you really shouldn’t use a keyboard and mouse in a sim racing setup. 

Looking at the EX3415R, you can tell it’s so much better-suited to simulation racing than a regular, flat 16:9 display. The ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio offers a wider field of view that allows you to take in roughly 30% more of the game world with every frame, resulting in much better situational awareness and less need to rotate the camera. The EX3415R’s 1900R curve is also ideal, not too aggressive nor too shallow. It’s a good match to the natural depth of human eyesight and an improvement over flat displays when you’re aiming to obtain enhanced spatial perception in simulations.

The EX3415R boasts a crisp and bright IPS panel with superb colours. That’s great for NASCAR Heat 5 and any other type of content. You also get treVolo 2.1-channel audio with two speakers and a subwoofer that are more than enough for revving engines, track sounds, vocals, and everything else. You don’t need to invest in dedicated speakers.

Most importantly, the well-received EX3415R delivers latency-busting 1ms MPRT to make your reactions count and maximize the impact of your skill as a sim driver. And as we mentioned before, you won’t need a monster PC to get the most out of the experience. Not only is NASCAR Heat 5 very optimized, but the EX3415R’s native 3440 x 1440 WQHD resolution doesn’t need a hyper powerful PC. For the sake of clarity, we’re recommending this monitor to PC users at this time because ultrawide resolutions aren’t supported by any console platform just yet. 

The MOBIUZ EX3415R curved gaming monitor is especially good for sim racing for the reasons listed above, but also for awesome quality of life touches like an intuitive remote control. The last thing you want when you’re deep in a racing session on your racing seat with the wheel and the pedals going on is to stop and fumble behind a monitor for that little joystick button. A proper remote makes display adjustments a lot easier and more intuitive.

We could go fifteen laps about how wonderful the EX3415R is, but you get the picture. If you’re a NASCAR Heat 5 fan and on the lookout for a new display, please take a closer look at the EX3415R. And also, make sure to check out the NASCAR Heat 5 Ultimate Summer Showdown, you could win stuff!