Overview:
Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10
Offline: 34 [900]
Online: 6 [100]
Approximate time: 45-50 Hours
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 career playthrough
Missable achievements: No [Replay levels]
Does difficulty affect Achievements: No
Unobtainable/glitched Achievements: Yes, see below.
Extra equipment needed?: No
Is there DLC? No
Introduction:
Hardcore NASCAR fans will not find this game a huge step in the futuristic direction. The game is great as far as driving and setups, and has a large create-a-car section. The online is very very glitchy (this is before the May 9th patch) and almost unplayable. The entire game is filled with bugs that a careless developer team left unfixed. If you are in it for JUST achievements, then it may be best to avoid this game.
Preparation:
Before we begin, please note that this is the first NASCAR game not produced by EA. The entire game is full of glitches. The online has been reported to be very glitchy when joining games. Your save file may also disappear if your game happens to freezes or glitches during racing. To prevent this, back up your save file on a USB, memory card or in the Cloud. Do this often.
Gamers have reported that the achievements for reaching Ranks 2, 10, 20 and 30 have not been unlocking. Make a back-up save before each of these levels to prevent this glitch from occurring.
The achievements Surfin USA and Boy Scout have also been known to glitch. Create another back-up save BEFORE mastering the final track. You cannot go back after completing the race. Please refer to this guide. Remember to create back-up saves often completing some of these challenges.
The game is also known to not unlock more than one achievement at a time. Say you were to unlock an achievement for finishing a race, as well as an achievement for ranking up. The game will give you the Rank achievement, but not unlock the achievement for 200 wins. Try to avoid this situation if at all possible. Please remember to back up your saves!
Abbreviated Walkthrough: (14 for 380)
The great thing about this is if you don’t win a pole or win a race, simply restart, or even select it again to race later. You will notice you will be invited to participate in invitational events as well as sponsorships. Pay attention to these as they will unlock different achievements as well as handy NXP. If you win your first race, and lead the most laps (on 2% length and easy AI this is not difficult) you will earn Sprint to the Finish. Immediately after winning and celebrating a burnout, your driver will be on top of his car. Press start, go to camera options and take a picture of him for Celebration Shot. After these you will earn VIP for completing a sponsorship’s three goals. You can view them at the career menu. Make sure you redo any tracks that you did not win or qualify 1st in before entering the chase, or else you'll miss a couple of the achievements. Keep at it and if you have 1sts in qualifying, invitational events, races, sponsorships, and everything in between, you'll unlock all career achievements.
Now go into single player, win a race on Kentucky, and you will finish off Victory lane. Remember that you can restart any races you did get a top ten on, and any you didn’t win can be done in single player.
Miscellaneous: (11 for 140)
At the main menu, go to ‘Car’ and then to ‘Design Car.’ Slap something on your custom car and save it for Car Stylist. If you go race that designed car in Quickplay or Campaign and win the race, you will earn Styin’ and Profiling. Back to the ‘Car’ selection screen, chose ‘Car Tuning.’ Change one or two things, save, and you’ll earn Hotrod. Next I would suggest racing a 43 car eliminator event for Last man Standing. After you get a feel for the game and how NXP works, you can go for NXP Challenge. If you have trouble getting 6,666 NXP in a race, view the solution below. Two more achievements I would suggest getting out of the way areRookie Mistake and Give me 4. You can do these in the same race, just speed on pit road, then circle around and make a four tire stop. You do not have to win the race. By this time you will have probably earned One for the Road for ranking up to level 2 and Tailgating for drafting 500 yards. If not, you’ll pick them up in campaign. You’ll need to win in every brand of car, so use my solution to quickly knock it out and obtain Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday. One last one, Finishing in First can be a pain, but if you can’t finish a race in first gear (NOTE: you do NOT have to race in manual transmission), view my solution below.
Multiplayer: (6 for 100)
Thankfully, these achievements can be done in private matches. Chose a race with more than five laps for your first race (on 2%, any short track will do.) Make a four tire stop, lead every lap, and get the fastest time and you will knock out Let’s go Racin Boys, Pit Perfection, Up on the Wheel, and Pedal to the Metal. Unfortunately, those were the easy few. Now you must race on ALL 27 tracks in online races to obtain Rubbin is Racin!. While doing this with a partner, have the guy who joins each time win the race. By race 20, he should have obtained Race Rivalry. Apparently the trick is that the host cannot get the rival win, only the guy who joined.
Mop-Up:
If you have not gotten to level 20 and 30, grind it out for Decorated Driver and NASCAR Legend. Along the way, if you have completed all the invitational events, you should get Ride in style upon hitting level 29 (the second bar has the final scheme.) If you need to restart your career with a different driver to obtain one more Legend coin, do so for Name to Remember. Then cleanup the following if needed:
Keep Diggin’ – 500 total miles
Star of Tomorrow– 100 fastest laps (this will take a while, best to use split screen method below)
Boy Scout – you must obtain Surfin USA to get the last 23 pins
Kingly– 201 race wins. For fast solution, see below guide.
Groovy – master 1 track. See below for information
Surfin USA – master all 27 tracks. See below for information
Conclusion:
So, after wading through the glitch-fest that is Nascar 2011: The Game, hopefully you'll find yourself in this step with another 1000 under your belt. While the game may seem like a quick and easy 1000, hiding underneath the covers was a non-QA tested game. While still fun, achievement hunters and completionists may want to steer clear.
[x360a would like to thank 1000puppys for this road map]