BriSCA Heat F2

There are some important pre-requisites you must follow if you are to avoid difficulties:

Perform a clean install of NASCAR Heat into the default location (C:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\NASCAR Heat). (This step is not absolutely essential, but I strongly recommend it!) Note that NH has a slightly strange install process as the game can be run from the CD - but you must install it to the hard drive for BH to work. To do this, run the "NASCAR Heat" executable on the NH CDROM, the click "Setup", and "Play from Hard Disk". The NH files will then be copied.
Install the NH Multipatch (read the instructions which are shown when you run this, but it is very straightforward - it can take a long while to install though, so be patient).
Install the 1.72e patch for NH.
Run NASCAR Heat and set up the graphics/sound/controller configuration as you see fit (it is important you do this as those settings are copied by BriSCA Heat when it installs).
Run some Heat races and make sure everythings works as you expect.
You are now ready to install BriSCA Heat F2...

Download and run the single BH F2 Version 1.0 install executable (if you don't know how to download and install things then, um, go and buy a PS2 with GT3).
The installer will ask you for your NASCAR Heat install folder - the default location is "C:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\NASCAR Heat". Don't worry when it warns you that the folder already exists - it is meant to!
The files are then copied.
Download and run the single BH F2 Version 1.1 install executable.
When the install has completed you should have a "BriSCA Heat F2" icon on your desktop. Double click this to start BH, but before doing this, please try and be patient and read the configuration guide below...

Set the realism level to "Expert" in the NH Setup menu. The BriSCA cars and tracks have been tuned to handle best in expert mode (not hardcore).
In the NASCAR Heat graphics options menu tick the "high detail cars" option (if it is available, Heat won't show this option if it doesn't think your system can handle it).
Select a driver and track to race at. Once in the race options screen (before racing, nearly there honest!) click "Setup" to set your race options - the first thing to change is the "realism" setting to "expert". You should also set the pack size to something reasonable for your machine - I run with 28 cars usually. Also within the race options screen you should turn off yellow flags (unless you like driving very slowly).
The race setup screen is also where you configure computer opponent difficulty - you will probably find you need to tweak this on a per-track basis to get a decent challenge from the AI cars. It also seems that at some track a lower difficulty level makes the AI drive better - on higher levels they push too hard and lose grip.
That should be it - have fun!