If NASCAR and Indy aren't giving you enough HD racing this season, there's always the Ford Mustang Challenge. Discovery HD Theater is planning a three-part series to follow the eight race series, beginning with testing this month to its conclusion in September. The now standard in-car HD cameras will be a part of the action as professional racers ranging from rookies to vets hit the track in their identically-spec'd Ford Mustang FR500S. An air date is still TBD, but pony car fans can check after the jump for more details.

[Via Autoblog]

DirecTV's NASCAR HotPass service just got better, since it will be available in high definition for the 2008 season. Subscribers get four dedicated driver channels with multiple camera angles and chatter from the driver to their pit crew, plus a fifth race channel that offers 13 different in-car driver audio feeds. The service kicks off with the Daytona 500 (free for all!), featuring drivers Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, and will be available throughout the Winston Nextel Sprint Cup Series season for $109, or $19.99 per-week.

Ready for the Daytona 500? No, seriously -- are you ready? For Canucks subscribed to Star Choice or Shaw, you can harmoniously nod your head up and down right about now, as your provider just launched Speed HD and NASCAR HotPass. Effectively immediately, said customers can tune in and catch the latest on Speed HD, while two HD channels will open up on February 17th as the debut of HotPass coincides with the 50th running of the famed race. If you're interested, you can upgrade to Star Choice's HD SPORTS bundle in order to secure Speed HD, while NASCAR HotPass will be available for $9.99 per month. Better still, the former is free for everyone for the first month, while the latter will be beamed out gratis for Sunday's event.

Read - Star Choice adds Speed HD and NASCAR HotPass
Read - Shaw adds Speed HD and NASCAR HotPass

Those who can already smell the rubber burning are probably antsy to see SPEED finally go HD in February, and while there's still a few weeks left until the channel serves up 100 hours of NASCAR coverage in high-definition, here's a few more details to tide you over. Starting on the 7th of next month, the channel will be covering the Gatorade Duel 150s, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, NASCAR RaceDay and loads more surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500. Additionally, it's aiming to bring other (read: non-live events) programming to high-definition as well, and according to SPEED's senior VP of production and network operations Rick Miner, the channel will be "transitioning all of its event programming to HD" over the course of the 2008 season. Oh, and just in case that wasn't enough for you gearheads, expect an all new interactive website to launch alongside the HD network, too.

What we're watching: NASCAR in Primetime debuts tonight on ABC, it is marked as HD on some schedules, but not on ABC's website so we'll wait and see if it is. Otherwise, we'll check out the second episode of Hard Knocks: Training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs on HBO.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

Wanna peep the future of HDTV at a NASCAR race? Just show up at the Texas Motor Speedway in April and you'll be able to check out 3D HDTV footage filmed at the NASCAR Busch Series' Stater Brothers 300 at the California Speedway in Fontana. 2D is soooo 2006 and while we wish this new 3D tech included those rad' blue and red paper glasses, we're sure that it looks just a tad better. Car racing seems like a natural fit to show off a in-your-face 3D demo so if your in the area, you might want to check it out at the DLP Reality Zone trailer - got to have a trailer if you're going to a NASCAR race.

[image via robert.to]

What we're watching: Tonight the NASCAR Busch Series season continues in high definition on ESPN from Fontana, California. HBO also brings a new George Lopez comedy special live from Phoenix, before we get a look at Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) hosting SNL.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

ESPN recently revealed its plans for broadcasting NASCAR races during the upcoming season, in what the network is calling "most technologically advanced in motorsports history". Every race will be done completely in HD, including in car cameras, pit crew, blimp and other angles. All of this goes along with the mobile studio ESPN will use to broadcast NASCAR Countdown shows from each race, and a radio room that allows ESPN to record and replay clips from any driver-pit crew transmissions. You can expect the full HD treatment on every Busch Series race this year (aired on ESPN2-HD) and the final 17 Nextel Cup races on ESPN and ABC. We've already come to expect top notch HD broadcasts from TNT, Fox and HDNet's coverage of the sport and it appears ESPN is ready to raise the bar yet again.

What we're watching: NASCAR is the obvious choice tonight, with the Sony HD 500 from Fontana, California taking the primetime slot on NBC. HDNet Movies has an all-Eastwood slate of films scheduled for tonight including A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Pale Rider. College football kickoff weekend continues on ESPN with Kentucky and Louisville squaring off, while those of us without HD DVD players can check out National Lampoon's Animal House on Cinemax.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What we're watching: NBA Playoffs time is here. The best basketball between the best teams (except for the Eastern conference, three teams under .500? Weak.) Lebron, Gilbert, Dwyane, Carmelo, Ron-ron, Timmay and all their rowdy friends are in HD all day on ABC and ESPN, you gotta love it.

Also on deck is some evening NASCAR action from Phoenix, you gotta watch that, if there is one more girlfriend fight they may as well add Jell-o wrestling to the schedule (not a bad thing).

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What we're watching: No Desperate Housewives, no new Grey's no problem? Seems that way today . We'll be checking to see who puts on the green jacket at Augusta today, the broadcast is absolutely beautiful. There's also NASCAR action, NBA and MLB on deck for tonight. A couple of TV movies should spice things up, with Covert One:The Hades Factor  on CBS and Avenger on TNT.



Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

Love racing?
Love high definition?

Get happy, because more of both is coming your way. After inking a deal with NASA, HDNet has announced the broadcast schedule for their third season of NASCAR Grand National Series racing beginning April 20th from Phoenix. I haven't had a chance to see HDNet's NASCAR broadcast, are they up to the usual quality of Fox and NBC's high definition presentations?

We're sure there are some Seahawks fans who think 1080i should have been in use during this past Super Bowl. Buried in this otherwise mundane article about the NFL considering more overseas games is a blurb about the director of officiating visiting NASCAR this weekend. He's checking out their on site HDTV displays that cover every camera angle shown in a race, and is considering switching to high definition for instant replays.

We at HD Beat certainly appreciate the tough job referees have, but we think it would be much easier if for example during every instant replay, they went over to our friend Hoyt's theater to take a better look at things. We have much experience in these situations, and can say with absolute certainty that our blind mothers could call a game more accurately while sitting on the couch watching HD than (some) referees.

Seriously, a 106" screen versus whatever little TV the ref usually looks at on the sidelines, its not even a comparison. Now the only question is what technology: projection, CRT, flat panel, plasma, LCD, DLP?

NBA: Check
NCAA: Check
NASCAR: Check
PGA & IRL: Zzzzzzzzzzzz

I guess I don't have much to complain about. A close game between the Pacers and 76ers is on ABC, NASCAR Nextel Cup action is about to kick off in Bristol on Fox, and CBS' sharp-but-pixely Elite 8 coverage is less than an hour away.

But what if I wanted to check out Vijay, Retief, Tiger and the guys out at Sawgrass?  Golf is already boring to watch (it is, I like to play golf but watching it is like watching someone else take a walk in the park), in SD it's a no-go. The IRL (R.I.P. Paul Dana) keeps trying to tell me how big a star Danica Patrick is going to be but if I don't see her in 720p then well, I won't see her.

HDSportsguide.com is reporting that there is no HD love for NASCAR this weekend. Despite the fact that ESPN brought us a HD NFL game from Mexico last year  it appears that FOX isn't up to the challenge. I don't know much about HDTV productions, especially when comparing a NFL event to a NASCAR event. Either way, it's disappointing to the millions of NASCAR fans that will have to go without HD. I would assume that they will at least present it in FOX widescreen which is much better than 4x3 SD.