Jeff Gordon has been involved in video games his entire life, from playing at the arcades to working with ASC Games on Jeff Gordon XS Racing for PlayStation in 1999 to gracing the cover of the upcoming NASCAR 09. The four-time Sprint Cup Series champion took some time after spending a full day with EA Sports recording audio and video for the game in Charlotte, North Carolina, to talk about his passion for racing ... and Rock Band.

So have you played NASCAR 09 yet? What can fans expect to see from you in the game?

I had the chance to play the game today and I'm very impressed. I'm looking forward to being on the cover and [I'll be] in the game with some of the green screen [segments that] we've been doing today. It's a lot of fun and it's cool that I'll get to be a mentor to some of the video game racers out there.

What was your day like with EA Sports?

The fun part was playing the game, the rest of it was work. I had to do a lot of reading lines on camera and voice-over for the game. My favorite part was when I was just playing the game for fun.

What kind of advice do you give to drivers in the game?

Most of it is encouragement and pumping them up when they're doing great things and keeping them motivated and critiquing them when things aren't going well. Most of it is from a competitive side of things. There are tutorials about how to go faster on a track and driver lines, but most of the things I'm doing are from trying to win races and championships and staying competitive during the long season.

After the recent Goodyear tire controversy at Darlington Raceway in Atlanta, are you allowed to chose your tires for each track in NASCAR 09?

(Laughing) You're a bad, bad man. There are definitely [different] versions of the game as you get into the higher levels where tires and fuel consumption and all of those things will affect your race. It might vary a little bit from track to track, since they do make these games very realistic. You can blow tires in this game, but usually most of it's going to come from not being smart and going to pit row when you know you have to change tires or making contact with another competitor out there. The nice thing about it is that in the gaming industry you can make the perfect tire for every track.

How far do you think video games have come over the years?

I've been playing video games since I was 5 or 6 years old with Intellivision, Atari and Nintendo. When I think back to how much technology and the visual effects of gaming have evolved, it feels today like you're watching a race live on TV, which is cool. If you ever get inside a real car, this is the most realistic game I've ever seen.

As someone who drives in excess of 170 miles an hour on a track every weekend, how realistic are these NASCAR games today?

What I like about it from the technical side, and what my crew chief would really like, is that you can go in there and really get into the settings and adjust the springs, shocks, the track bar and everything. When I was playing the game today I took the car out on the track and it was really tight, so I took it into the garage and I freed it up. All of the same adjustments that would help you in real life on the track, those same adjustments work out in the game. Of course, I was being my own crew chief. I really need Steve Letarte to make these adjustments for me. (Laughing).

Can you make adjustments to these cars that NASCAR doesn't allow you to do in real life?

Yes. We can't play with the wing angles in real life, but in the game you can lengthen the splinter and pull it in. It's all Car of Tomorrow exclusively for the Sprint Cup Series, which is one of the big differences between this year's game and last year's game.

Other drivers have used NASCAR video games to prepare for a real race. Is that something you've ever tried?

If you think about it, those are the young drivers that use these games, I'm an old guy. They didn't have this kind of technology around when I was coming along. I wish they had, because I would have loved to have done that. I know there are stories about Denny Hamlin racing in the video game on the Pocono track before he went there and there are certain tracks where it would help, on road courses especially, but I've been to all of the tracks. I will say that if I went to Montreal or the Mexico track, which I'm sure are in the Nationwide section of this game, then I could learn the track and that would be a great tool.

Do you think you're going to inspire some kids to follow their NASCAR dreams with this game?

It could start with video games in this day and age and I certainly hope so. I think there's a lot that can be learned from video games' hand-eye coordination. That's something I've always enjoyed about video games, especially the racing video games. I feel like you can help hone your skills with video games and that could make you a better racecar driver. If there are kids out there who play the game and are really good at it and they decide they want to be a racecar driver, that would be a very cool story.

Your new teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a big gamer. Have you guys played any games together yet?

I haven't. I've been up to his house and I've seen his set-up, which is impressive, but I haven't actually played any games with him. EA also does Rock Band, so we're hoping to put together a band with the team. I'm the drummer, so we'll see what kind of a guitar player Dale Jr. is.

Now that you're on the cover of NASCAR 09, will that give you an advantage when you do play the game against Dale Jr.?

(Laughing.) It doesn't give me any advantage. My car's pretty stout out there in this game. I think I'd be tough to beat whether I'm driving it or not.