While the races at Lowe's Motor Speedway in NASCAR 2000, the game's predecessor, start in daylight and change to nightime by the end of the race, in NASCAR 2001, the conditions remain the same throughout the race. Also, many tracks (Michigan, Texas, Pocono, etc.) are absent in the PlayStation 2 version for unknown reasons. In the PlayStation version however, all tracks raced during the 2000 Winston Cup season were included except Dover International Speedway & New Hampshire International Speedway, as those two tracks would not be featured as playable tracks until NASCAR Thunder 2002. NASCAR 2001 was the final game that featured Dale Earnhardt as a regular full-time driver, prior to his death in the 2001 Daytona 500 (which would reappear in NASCAR Sim Racing with his 1999 car and in NASCAR 07 as an unlockable Chase Plate and Earnhardt appears in NASCAR Thunder 2003 as result of a cheat code). Johnny Benson is also absent in this game, while it was the first NASCAR game to include Jimmy Spencer. The drivers Michael Waltrip, Kenny Irwin Jr., Richard Petty and Adam Petty do not participate in any of the races as a computer opponent, instead the player must be the driver.