Easy All Star race & Bud Shootout:
Instead of reaching the EA Bio levels for the All-Star race and the Shootout, just race a season on veteran at 3 or more race length, damage on visual only, and brake and steering help, and win the races.
Night Tracks:
Go to season mode, then to "Custom Schedule". You can unlock night races for the day tracks.
All Cameo FMV:
At the main menu, select "Features", then select "Create-a-Car". Enter "Seymore Cameos" as a case-sensitive name to unlock all cameo FMV sequences.
All-Star Race:
Reach level 16 in your EA Bio to unlock the All-Star race.
Alternate Night Tracks:
Win the race that has a locked version of an alternate night track on the veteran difficulty, 3 race length, and damage on visual only. Repeat this method on all tracks that have a locked version of it to unlock alternate night tracks.
Bud Shootout:
Reach level 18 in your EA Bio to unlock the Bud Shootout.
EA Bio Bonuses:
Various other Thunder Plates can be unlocked by uploading your EA Bio from other 2004 EA titles, such as NCAA Football 2004, March Madness 2004, Madden 2004, etc.
Unlock All Create-a-Car Sponsors:
To unlock all create-a-car sponsors, win the Winston Cup in Career Mode and you'll get a thunder plate that states all create-a-car sponsors are unlocked.
Unlock Dale Earnhardt:
Win the Daytona 500 with Kevin Harvick 29 car to unlock Dale Earnhardt. After winning the Daytona 500, a Thunder Plate will appear with Dale Earnhardt on it. Alternately, go to Lighting challenge and play three of them.
Unlock Kitt Paint:
To unlock Kitt Paint, win the Winston Cup in Career Mode.