The Daytona 500 - the “Superbowl” of Nascar - was this past Sunday and I don’t know about you but I’m a big fan! The roar of the engines, the packed in crowds, it’s all good to me. While the Nascar Sprint Cup series is considered a stock car series, there’s not much stock about the cars that are racing around the track today. Technology permeates the sport and not just in the cars themselves. For the past couple seasons, Nascar has been developing a 3-D viewing technology called Raceview, that lets fans watch the race virtually on their computer. (See screen the screen shots, below).

I’ve been following the technology for a few years and the improvements made in this current version of the software really creates a powerful racing experience. When you watch the race on TV, you have to listen to the announcers to see what is going on. They may or may not talk about your favorite drivers and they focus their commentary usually on the top 10 positions of the race because that’s where the camera is mostly focused. With Nascar Raceview I can watch any driver at any time and from any perspective I choose. For example, I can see the birds-eye view like in the large image above, the rear view to see what cars need to be passed (image at right), and flip the camera around with the click of the mouse and see who’s coming up from behind! (see image below, right.)

With the Raceview technology, you can choose to watch the race from the perspective of any driver at any time. You can also click to hear in-car radio communications between any driver and his crew chief streamed in real-time! Nascar promotes Raceview to those that aren’t watching the race live on TV, but it’s fun to use the tool while watching the race or to keep up during commercials. Hearing the drivers rant after they’ve been involved in a wreck or watching the telemetry of the car from someone toward the back that is now running faster laps than the current race leader really gives you insight that it seems even the announcers don’t have!

One thing you can’t do is see the live action crashes, blown engines, etc. You still need the TV for that but you don’t really watch the race for the crashes, DO YOU!?!?