UNO: NASCAR Card Game Rules Explained With Pictures

Objective

The objective of UNO: NASCAR is to play all of the cards from your hand before the other players in order to score points.

Setup

Each player randomly draws a card. The player that draws the card with the highest number becomes the dealer.
The dealer shuffles the cards and deals seven to each player.
The remaining cards become the Draw Pile.
Flip over the top card from the Draw Pile in order to form the Discard Pile. If the flipped card is a Wild or Wild Draw 4, flip over another card. If you flip over any other non-number cards, take the action corresponding to the card (see the UNO: NASCAR Card Meanings section for more details.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Turn order moves clockwise/left to start the game.

Hot to Play UNO: NASCAR

Playing a Card

On your turn you will try to play a card from your hand to the Discard Pile. To play a card from your hand, it must match the top card on the Discard Pile in one of three ways:

Color
Number
Symbol

The Drafting, Wild and Wild Draw 4 cards match all of the other cards in the game.

If you can play a card and want to, you will play it to the top of the Discard Pile. Play then passes to the next player in turn order.

Playing a card in UNO NASCAR — The top card on the Discard Pile is a yellow three. Along the bottom of the picture are five cards that the next player could choose to play. They could play the yellow eight since it matches the color. The green three matches the number. Finally the last three cards are wild so they will match all other cards.

Playing a card that matches the symbol of the top card on the Discard Pile. — The top card on the Discard Pile is a Reverse card. The next player could choose to play their own Reverse card since it matches the card’s symbol.

Drawing a Card

If you have a card that you can play but don’t want to, you can choose not to play it. In this case you will take the rest of your turn like if you didn’t have a card that you could play.

Should you have no cards in your hand that you can play, you will draw the top card from the Draw Pile. Look at the card you just drew. If you can play this new card, you can immediately play it to the Discard Pile. If you can’t play the card or don’t want to, you will add the card to your hand.

Should the Draw Pile ever run out of cards, shuffle the Discard Pile.

Whether you play a card or draw a card, play then passes to the next player in turn order.

UNO: NASCAR Card Meanings

Number Cards

Number cards do not have any special ability in the game. You may only play a number card if it matches the color or number of the top card on the Discard Pile.

Draw 2

When you play a Draw 2 card, the next player in turn order must draw two cards from the Draw Pile. The next player in turn order also loses their next turn.

You may play a Draw Two card on another Draw Two card or on a card that matches its color. You may not play a Draw Two card to avoid having to draw cards from a Draw Two played against you.

Should a player reveal a Draw 2 to start a round, the first player has to draw two cards.

Reverse

The Reverse card changes the direction of turn order when you play it. If turn order was moving clockwise, it will now move counter-clockwise. If it was moving counter-clockwise, it will now move clockwise.

You may play a Reverse card on top of another Reverse card or a card that matches its color.

Should a player reveal a Reverse card to start the game, the player to the right of the dealer starts the round and play will move counter-clockwise.

Skip

When you play a Skip card, the next player in turn order loses their turn.

You can play a Skip card on top of another Skip card or a card that matches its color. You cannot play a Skip card to avoid having to skip your turn when another player plays a Skip card against you.

Should a Skip card be revealed to start the round, the player to the left of the dealer loses their first turn. The player to their left will instead start the round.

Wild

You can play Wild cards on top of any other card in the game. You can play a Wild card even if you have another card in your hand that you could play. When you play a Wild card you will choose the color of the Discard Pile. You can pick any of the four colors including the color it was when you played the Wild card.

If a Wild card is revealed to start the round, you can choose what to do with it. In one section of the rules it states to flip over another card. In the Wild card section though it says to let the player to the left of the dealer choose the color of the Discard Pile.

Wild Drafting

You will play the Wild Drafting card like a normal Wild card. After playing the card you will choose the color for the Discard Pile.

After you choose the color for the Discard Pile, you can play up to two cards from your hand that match the color you chose.

Playing a Wild Drafting card — The current player chose to play a Wild Drafting card. They choose the color green. Since they had two green cards in their hand, they will play them right away.

Should the cards you play take you down to one card left in your hand, you must say UNO.

The rules don’t say what you should do if the Wild Drafting card is revealed to start the round. I would assume you should treat the card like a Wild allowing the first player to choose the color for the Discard Pile. Whether that player also gets to discard two cards that match the chosen color depends on what players agree to.

Wild Draw 4

You can play Wild Draw 4 cards on top of any other card in the game. When you play the card you will choose the color for the Discard Pile. The next player in turn order also has to draw four cards and loses their next turn.

While Wild Draw 4 cards match any other card in the game, you cannot always play the card. You may only play a Wild Draw 4 if you have no cards in your hand that match the color of the top card from the Discard Pile. This version of UNO does not state if Wild cards count as matches. Most newer versions of UNO count Wilds as matches in this situation.

Playing a Wild Draw 4 card — The current player has decided to play a Wild Draw 4 onto the Discard Pile. The next player in turn order either needs to draw four cards and lose their turn, or they can choose to challenge the play of the card.

Challenging a Wild Draw 4

If a player plays a Wild Draw 4 card against you, you can challenge the play of the card. If you choose to challenge, the player who played the Wild Draw 4 has to show you their entire hand. This allows you to verify that they played the card correctly.

Should the challenge be successful (the player had a card in their hand that matched the current color), the player who played the Wild Draw 4 has to draw the four cards. The player who challenged no longer has to draw cards or lose their turn.

Playing a Wild Draw 4 incorrectly — The top card on the Discard Pile before the Wild Draw 4 was played was a yellow card. The player who played the Wild Draw 4 had a yellow card in their hand. Therefore they played the card incorrectly. The player who played the Wild Draw 4 has to draw the four cards instead of the challenging player.

If the Wild Draw 4 was played correctly (the player did not have any cards in their hand that matched the current color), the challenging player has to draw the four cards and loses their next turn. Note: This is different than most newer versions of UNO since when you fail a challenge you have to draw six cards instead of four.

Playing a Wild Draw 4 correctly — The player who played the Wild Draw 4 had no card in their hand that matched the previous color (yellow). Therefore the challenging player has to draw four cards and adds them to their hand.

If a Wild Draw 4 card is flipped over to start a round, return the card to the deck and pick another card.

Calling UNO

As soon as you play your second to last card (you only have one card left in your hand), you must immediately call out UNO.

If you don’t call out and another player catches you, you will have to draw two cards from the Draw Pile. Should another player start their turn by either drawing a card or playing a card, players can no longer call you out for not saying UNO.

End of Round

When a player plays the last card from their hand, the current round ends. If the last played card is a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4, the next player in turn order draws the corresponding number of cards.

The winner of the round collects all of the cards left in the other players’ hands. They will score points for each card they collect as follows:

Number Cards: Face Value
Draw 2, Reverse, Skip: 20 Points
Wild, Wild Draw 4, Drafting: 50 Points

The winner records the amount of points they scored during the round. If none of the players have scored 500 or more total points, play another round.

Scoring in UNO NASCAR — These cards were left in the other players’ hands at the end of the round. The player who won the round will score points as follows. The number cards at the top will be worth 17 points (3 + 6 + 8). The Draw 2, Reverse and Skip cards in the middle will each score 20 points each. Finally the Wild, Wild Drafting, and Wild Draw 4 will score 50 points each. The player scores a total of 227 points from these cards.

Winning the Game

The first player to score 500 or more total points wins the game.

Variant Games

Two Player Games

The two player game is played the same as the normal game with a few small tweaks.

Reverse cards are treated like Skip cards.
When you play a Reverse or Skip card, you immediately take another turn.
When you play a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 card, your opponent draws the corresponding number of cards. You then immediately take another turn.

Team Game (4 or 8 players)

If there are four players you can choose to play with a partner. Partners should sit across from one another.

The round ends when any player plays the last card from their hand. The winning team collects all of the cards in their opponents’ hands. They will score points for each card they collect.

You could also play a variant on the Team game. In this variant you will play four rounds with each other player (12 total rounds). Each player keeps their own individual score. The player that scores the most points after all of the rounds, wins the game.

If there are eight players play two games at the same time (on two different tables). You will play with each other player for four rounds. The player that has scored the most points after 28 rounds, wins the game.

Challenge UNO

You will play the game the same as the normal game. At the end of the round each player with cards left in their hand scores points for each card they weren’t able to play.

When a player reaches the agreed upon number of points (the game recommends 500), they are eliminated from the game. When only two players remain, use the appropriate rules for two player games.

The last player remaining wins the game.

UNO: NASCAR FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

19 Blue Cards: One 0 card, Two each of cards 1-9
19 Green Cards: One 0 card, Two each of cards 1-9
19 Red Cards: One 0 card, Two each of cards 1-9
19 Yellow Cards: One 0 card, Two each of cards 1-9
8 Skip Cards: Two of each color
8 Reverse Cards: Two of each color
8 Draw 2 Cards: Two of each color
4 Wild Cards
4 Wild Draw 4 Cards
4 Drafting Cards
Instructions

Year: 2005 | Publisher: Mattel, Sababa Toys

Genres: Card, Family

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-10 | Length of Game: 30-60 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

For more board and card game how to plays/rules and reviews, check out our complete alphabetical list of board game posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.