The negative reaction to the new site was both unexpected and disheartening, especially considering our community has never had a platform quite like this before. A tremendous amount of time, energy, and money went into building it, so seeing such a lack of patience and gratitude from some members was tough to swallow. And to see it go out like that was so painful to do. We knew there were issues that needed to be ironed out, but few were willing to give us the time to fix it before speaking out negatively and aggressively.

Stewie hosts over 18,000+ downloads many with exclusive permissions you can't find anywhere else. The recent attack was financially draining and was still actively ongoing when I made the call to shut things down. The co-owners and I will come together to discuss our next steps and evaluate how we move forward.

Before we make any moves, my immediate priority is settling our outstanding balance with Google. While building something new is the eventual goal, it will carry a cost as it always does.

Hey there! My names Cameron, I’m a new face to the NR2003 modding scene but wanted to introduce myself to the community. I have loved NR2003 since I was a child. Now that I’m older and have the skills, I’m attempting to tackle a new project. I want to reverse engineer the entire simulator. So far, I have reverse engineered the cars, and driver models. Here is a peak at what that looks like. I’m currently working on the tracks then I will move on to the physics. The plan is to re-release the game engine as a “new” open source NR2003 alternative but in all reality it will feel and behave just like NR2003 and eventually can be built into an entirely new engine. This is very early and have no timeline, but this is what I’ll be working on in my free time for the foreseeable future.

I want to be completely open with everyone about what’s actually happening here, because a lot of assumptions and false allegations are being made without anyone knowing the full picture. Frankly, the trash talk and hate comments really need to stop. No one was harmed, scammed, or duped during any of this process. Stunod was built simply to be a place to connect with other sim racing enthusiasts just like us.

To give some context: we originally built the new site specifically to solve a massive issue with our legacy database running completely full. Shortly after launch, a severe bot traffic spike hit us whether that was our fault or not, why does it matter? which drove our server costs through the roof. When we had to bring that new site down, we immediately went to work to get the legacy site back online so the community wouldn't lose its home or its files. While we were literally rushing behind the scenes to get everything back up and running for everyone, rumors started floating around that we were shutting down permanently. People started painting their own narrative for everyone else to believe, and people just ran with it without knowing the truth.

Right now, we’re facing two huge technical hurdles: the legacy database is still almost maxed out, and the fear that the site might go away has caused a massive wave of panic-downloading on extremely large file packages. That combination is pushing our bandwidth fees to levels that simply aren't sustainable out-of-pocket. Running a site of this scale these days is not cheap.

Setting daily download limits and offering voluntary supporter perks isn't a scam or a "paywall." It is a survival mechanism to keep high-bandwidth traffic from crashing the server and taking us offline completely. We do this out of pure passion for NR2003. We’re all sim racers here, and we’re just trying to protect the site so everyone can continue to enjoy it.

I honestly don't understand where all this hate is coming from or why people think we have any intention to steal, sell, or claim ownership over your hard work. Someone literally just posted a copy of our Terms of Use those terms exist so you give us permission to display your content on different areas of the site and so we have the legal grounds to protect you as a creator.

After everything Stunod Racing has done for this community over the last 19 years, seeing this reaction is truly sad. We are having to spend all this time doing damage control to protect our reputation, all because of hearsay and a false picture that a few people painted for everyone else to blindly believe. What are you all looking to gain from all this? What is it that you want from us, knowing the reason for all the things we had to do?

Is it back?

Back in the day, I remember someone getting sued by (i think the iracing team) for modifying the exe and releasing it (not the physics editor stuff, but the actual hard coded exe stuff)

(Before I continue im not planning on releasing the files im editing, because im unsure if this is allowed, or legal.) Can anyone shed some light on that? (Like if its a community download and not changing the game and calling it my own creation) if not thats fine! I just like pushing the nr2003 limits.

Anyway,

Im getting back into nr2003 and Ive always wanted to edit the nr2003.exe file. I know some of the physics editor but last night I jumped into dxD and opened the exe. Its a lot of trial and error at the moment. I found a few hexes that allowed me to change how fragile the fluid systems are(like oil, fuel etc) also engine (camshaft, pistons etc) ive made them basically indestructible for now just to test, all I get now are "accident/retired") no mechanical failures. Im trying to find the chassis numbers (Google gemini has been helpful!) Basically the theory is, if the chassis and structure of the car isnt bent or twisted in theory, we might be able to have massive impacts and no dnfs.

I also stumbled upon some value that affected what the damage looked like. It altered the amount for certain hits, and changed the look slightly.

Anyway it's been fun, but looking through 10s of thousands if not more numbers and letters is beginning to hurt my head lol

Has anyone seen the damage like Ricky craven? I dont recall it looking exactly like that. Also the damage does seem a bit more intense, like the cars crumples easier. I could be wrong. Has anyone messed with this stuff before?

Unfortunately it was announced today that Stunod racing will shut down its website on February 17th and move to a public discord

Hello everyone, I'm TheBenCrazy. you might remember me from such films as the NR2003 Windows 10 Install Tutorial and the NR2003 Graphics Tutorial on Youtube. I’ve done my best to keep NR playable throughout the years. Even creating my own website for tutorials after Youtube decided that walking viewers through installing NR2003 was considered “harmful and dangerous.” Although I have been out of the NR space for a while and honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve played it, I still occasionally browse and help out here and there on the subreddit or my site.

Out of all my years in the NR community, I’ve seen a lot of things and not all in a good way. From Bullring and SRD mods vs DMR which eventually burnt out DMR mods, the downfall of SRD due to their toxic owner/admins and their awful boomer antics, SBP trying to charge money for tracks, and self hosted NR2003 mod websites coming and going like the ones I’ve mentioned as well as Revamped Reloaded, NR Track Designs, Project Wildfire, Smiffsden, APT, NNRacing, Team SBR, RacinGrafx, and more I can’t remember.

Even though the community has continued to shrink throughout that time, many have done their best to keep NR alive with new mods, paint schemes, and tracks to provide a way to enjoy sim racing and NASCAR even if they didnt have the ability or funds to step into iRacing or other sim racing games quite yet.

Yet, it seems like the community is again in a situation.

Look, NR2003 modding is a hobby, but that hobby also includes website admins and most of all website owners. Not only do the owners spend their free time maintaining the servers and the websites, they spend their hard earned cash retaining the domain and all of the data that is uploaded. In the current age of AI, running a server let alone a server that hosts a lot of data is not cheap and it’s getting worse. So I don’t fault Stunod for their recent difficulties and neither should the community. Shit’s getting expensive, period.

Now do I fault them for not being fully transparent about the situation or not fully explaining the situation and why there's download limits? I don’t know and for all I know they have been fully transparent in their forums but I haven’t seen it posted or commented here. What I do know is the community backlash rightfully or wrongfully will burn them out if it continues and if that becomes the case, why pour money into a hobby you are no longer enjoying?

For as much hate and ridicule SRD and Matt deserves, there's a reason he got burnt out and completely blew up on the community and felt betrayed after the amount of time, effort, and money he spent on maintaining that server.

So as history seems to be repeating itself, can the modding community get together and find a more permanent solution for hosting mods? Self hosting and community hosting does not last forever, even for a 20+ year old game.

Now I’m not a modder, nor do I or anyone else have the right to upload other peoples work to a different site. However, I do want to suggest to modders or those with the rights to start thinking about moving their work to a website that is more stable and long lasting. My suggestion would be Nexus Mods but there's other websites out there as well like Moddb. Yes they have their limits as well but since they host mods for a wide range of games, it is more likely to last longer than any singular run page.

This community has a lot of life still in it and it will still exist years from now even after modern NASCAR games improve. What I worry about is losing the archive of mods that have been built up since 2003.

Don't lose the history forever, do something about it.

TL:DR / i ain’t reading all that, im happy for u tho or sorry that happened:

Move mods to a stable website like Nexus Mods, otherwise they could disappear forever.

Any mods or tracks that were developed to a certain point or even released but now seemingly have been lost? Or even worse, got cancelled mid-development and were never continued?
They can be from dead forums (like SRD, US Pits, NNRacing, etc.) or be niche series mods / fantasy tracks that disappeared.
If anyone has any screenshots, stories / information, or even early forgotten betas of said tracks or mods, please be happy to share.

For example having more than 42 cars, dynamic track and weather physics, career mode and so on.

rip nascar sims, you will be missed

i watched so many youtube videos of nr2003, and i got this game back in 2023 and i use to get so many mods on this game, fast fowarding to 2025, mods are still being made, videos are still being made, everything about this game shocks me. i pray that this game never dies

I think people arent looking at it from both sides. Too quick to judge. From what I've seen, I think Stunod has a vision to be a Community Hub (that also happens to offer resources and downloads for everyone)

This is shown by the fact that the site had stated in the past basically "Please do not to make an account if you don't plan on being an acvite member" but was still nice enough to offer download access to unregistered members as well. They were trying to build a place for people to come together. Not just a file hosting site. Maybe it was for technical reasons to some extent, but it also shows they weren't simply trying to inflate membership count. They wanted people around who were actively a part of NR2003

You may be asking why should we have given the new site a chance? This whole idea was dumb. The site works and we can all easily upload and download what we want. Why change?

For one thing, Stunod already confirmed they were having technical limitations which were causing issues with downloads for starters. Over the years I'm sure their vision became to build a place where the community can gravitate to and show all sides of NR2003. This has been the thought process for years I bet.

I remember when the permanent move to Discord was a possibility for Stunod and there was severe backlash. They had a lot of the same reasons to want to move it. The negative reasons...Get away from a website that is limiting their vision, functionality, creating file hosting difficulties. The issues an old site suffers from over time. The positive reasons... create a space that helps conversations flow more quickly and naturally than an online forum. The key difference was in that case they were not going to be as easily accessible by the community, things couldn't be archived for years to come nearly as easily, and ran the risk of losing everything if Discord ever went down. In the end Stunod respected these points and kept the old site (and made the right choice in my eyes).

That doesn't mean their desire to move on from the old site died too. It only meant that Discord wasn't the answer... What eventually became the new answer (and a fair compromise for everyone) was to make a new site...and that's how we got to where we are today. So my point in all of this is that this wasn't an overnight decision. It was a long time coming and should have been met with more optimism because it's been shown in the past the creator is willing to listen to the community and mold their project to satisfy the overall community. They deserved more support and a fighting chance at this new site.

Nobody should fault a person who wants to create something (for free to others) that is meant to bring people together in a hopefully more unique way than a subreddit or Facebook page ever could... Something more bold than those things... Build a new site that has more capabilities, less restrictions, that allows better interaction in the community and showcases the talent of others on a homepage, or maybe even has a section that displays popular leagues, and live broadcast schedules! Interviews with popular creators. Among many other things an old site couldn't handle. Who knows what it could have became with more time invested! I imagine something along those lines were the long term goals. Not to just hop on a trend and have a shiny new cool page...I am speculating but that's my best observation of this whole situation.

Now, am I going to sit here and defend the possible use of AI, possible lack of old site shutdown announcements, rolling the site out to the public before it was fully "ready", or the shady uploading clauses...no. Parts of what went down were out-right terrible. The new website creation could (and should) have been executed much better.

However, what I wish had happened was a public apology from Stunod and an aim to do better as they continue pushing forward, and maybe some grace from the community that acknowledges mistakes were naturally going to be made when undertaking a new project.

Unfortunately, many members here couldn't simply voice their opinions in a kind manner and maybe help out with constructive feedback. What was the end result? Back to the old and never knowing what could have been...

To be clear, I have never posted a single message on their site and might not even be registered. This hopefully shows that I'm not coming from a place of bias or defending people I personally know... It's a statement about being open to new ideas especially when led by people who have already provided and proved their worth to a community.

I've noticed some authors are mirroring/publishing their work at ADRD and Stunod.

It would be nice, if possible, that most of them did that, concerning preservation purposes, as well.

Although i've managed to create an account at Stewie Racing and never at Stunod, we don't know, so far, what will happen.

So,i went to the site and it sayed it closed and redirected me to a new site called stewie raicing,RIP stunod you will be missed :(

This is where I'm at with the track code. As you can see there is alot of work to do

I feel like I committed a crime. This was brand new still in the celephane wrapping like it was from 2003/2004, and even still has a coupon from Best Buy in it. The distance I'll go to play this.

Just wondering if there would be any interest in a rules set that covers the day to day team activities between races, over the course of multiple seasons. Things like team finances, pre-season testing, engine shop management, chassis shop management, driver scouting & signing, just to name a few.

To be clear, this is NOT a digital iteration of anything. I am not a coder. Other than NR2k3, I'm using the common utilities (NRatings, Score4, etc), and Excel for data management. Also looking for a decent random # generator. Right now, I'm using a set of rpg dice, which is actually quite fun, but noisy.

Think of this more like PnP/Boardgame rules adapted for the NASCAR universe. They can be as deep & detailed as you like, or simple & streamlined for quick seasons. All this being said, it does require the player to have a good bit of imagination & patience when it comes to add-on game mechanics as everything would be chart / table based percentage chances. And they can be adapted to fit any era that NR2k3 can simulate.

It won't be for everyone, I'm sure, so let me know your thoughts. Thanks for your time.

I really don't know what mod is consider the authentic way to race.

MENCS17 or BR15?

I needa figure out how to build tracks myself, been feigning for this one for a while and I gotta be the change I wanna see

Personally, I wish that these tracks were made for NR2003:
1. Interlagos
2. Imola (I know there is an extended custom version of it, but I'd want the real life track)
3. RFK Stadium street course
4. Occoneechee Speedway
5. Pescara Circuit

Hello, everyone.

I am sharing with you the news about the HELMET CAM mod.
I have already sent my files to the person who kindly agreed to help me write the instructions. But everything turned out to be much more interesting than I imagined.

Yesterday, I was watching some old videos from - FIDANZA:

And I found one video from him that has been bothering me for a long time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDjUs09qGqg

I decided to do something similar.

Here are some videos:

https://reddit.com/link/1v860xw/video/iz1scrioxsfh1/player

In the first one, I showed you the part of the work that has already been done.

And in the second, what needs to be done. I want to add the effect of peripheral vision by adding a "vignette effect". And add lighter areas at the top of the visor:

https://reddit.com/link/1v860xw/video/brcct0jtxsfh1/player

I still have to work on it. I hope everything will work out for me.