NASCAR Thunder 2003 is the sixth edition of the EA Sports' NASCAR racing simulator series. Developed by EA Tiburon and Budcat Creations and published by EA Sports. It was released for PlayStation PlayStation 2 GameCube and Xbox on September 19 2002 and for Microsoft Windows on October 16. The product features Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the cover. It was the first time the NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award recipient was featured on the cover although he did not win the award for the first time until the following year. Dale Earnhardt appeared in the game as a driver as a result of entering his name as a Create-A-Car driver's name; he did not appear in the previous game due to his death. He appeared as a legend in subsequent games.