Best NASCAR Heat 3 Settings for Thrustmaster TMX / T150

NASCAR Heat 3 plays very well with a wheel, but it does need some tweaking to get the best experience when using the Thrustmaster TMX or T150. The default settings make the force feedback too strong and the steering angle isn't set properly. Thankfully, these issues are easy to fix.

There is no soft lock in this game, meaning that you can continue turning the wheel past the point you can in the real car. Nothing happens in game when you do this, the input is ignored entirely, but it makes it much harder to control the car in corners when you can't tell when you've reached that maximum rotation angle.

In this guide, I will show how to configure the wheel settings properly in-game and in the Thrustmaster Control Panel, if playing on PC.

Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings

The big issue with NASCAR Heat 3 is setting the steering angle correctly. In some games, the lack of a Soft Lock feature isn't that big of a deal because you only very rarely reach that point. In NASCAR, however, the steering angle is very small and you will frequently hit the maximum rotation angle. When the wheel keeps turning past that point, the game just doesn't feel right and the cars are harder to control as a result.

We can correct this by changing the rotation angle in the Thrustmaster Control Panel, which will provide the rotation lock, and modifying the in-game settings to match this. Ordinarily, I don't like having to modify the driver-level rotation angle, as it is annoying to have to change it when you load up a different game. In this case, there simply is no other way to get this to work.

Setting Value
Rotation 240°
Overall Strength of all forces 100%
Constant 100%
Periodic 100%
Spring 100%
Damper 100%
BOOST Off
Auto-Center by the game

Spring and Damper are not used by NASCAR Heat 3, so can be set to any value without issue. As a general rule, I leave these at 100% since there are some games that require them.

BOOST should always be turned off. For an in-depth look as to why, see my BOOST Force Feedback Analysis.

NASCAR Heat 3 Settings

In Options > Controls > Input Device:

Setting Value
Input Device Wheel
Rotation Angle 240°

Despite the game telling you to put in the maximum rotation for your wheel, you need to match the value that is in the Thrustmaster Control Panel for this to work correctly.


In Options > Controls:

The settings don't have any numerical values, just a simple slider. The default value is usually the center, which I will refer to as 0 in the following settings. The sliders can go from -5, if fully to the left, all the way to +5, if all the way to the right.

NASCAR Heat 3 Settings
NASCAR Heat 3 Settings
Setting Value
Steering Deadzone -5
Steering Range +5
Steering Sensitivity 0
Brake Sensitivity -5
Throttle Sensitivity -5

Steering Deadzone needs to be left at -5. Anything higher than that will make the center of the wheel unresponsive.

Steering Range should be all the way up. This tells the game to use the full 240° rotation we had set earlier.

Steering Sensitivity should be left at 0. Raising this will make the in-game wheel reach full lock before the actual wheel does. Lowering it will prevent the in-game wheel from being able to reach full lock.

Brake Sensitivity and Throttle Sensitivity are personal preference, but I recommend turning them all the way down to get a more linear response.


In Options > Controls > Controller Features:

Force Feedback Settings for Tarmac
Force Feedback Settings for Tarmac courses.
Force Feedback Settings for Dirt
Force Feedback Settings for Dirt courses.
Setting Value
Force Feedback Strength -2 (Tarmac) / 0 (Dirt)
Impact Effect On

Force Feedback Strength controls the resistance to turning based on the tire grip. Setting this too high will make the wheel too heavy and lifeless. There is much less resistance on dirt tracks, so the force feedback can be turned up for them.

Impact Effects shakes the wheel when you hit other cars or the wall.

Conclusion

The only thing that can't be fixed is that the steering wheel animation doesn't match your input exactly when in cockpit view. The animation only goes 90° left or right and it changes based on how fast you are going. Thankfully it's pretty close to the real life motion, so it's easy to ignore.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Question or Comment?