and Sega Enterprises USA chief of finance Masahiro Nakagawa began negotiations with representatives of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway for a license. To lower costs, Sega decided not to negotiate with NASCAR for a license, and so the game does not contain real sponsors, drivers, or cars. Development was handed to Sega AM2, a development division headed by Yu Suzuki, who had led development on popular racing games including Hang-On, Out Run, and Virtua Racing. Suzuki served as producer on Daytona USA alongside Nagoshi. Sega mandated that Daytona USA had to be better than Namco's 1993 racing game Ridge Racer. Whereas Ridge Racer focused on simulation, Daytona USA instead aimed for "funky entertainment". AM2 split into two teams: one focused on Daytona USA while the other developed Virtua Fighter. Nagoshi read books and watched videos on NASCAR, although he found it difficult to convey the emotions of the sport to his staff in Japan. Game planner Makoto Osaki said he purchased a sports car and watched the NASCAR film Days of Thunder more than 100 times. Programmer Daichi Katagiri was an avid player of arcade racing games at the time and leaned on that experience. The developers used satellite imagery and sent staff to photograph Daytona International Speedway; Nagoshi walked a full lap to get a feel for the banking in the corners. The team also considered Daytona International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway for the game's beginner course. According to Nagoshi, because Daytona USA was not intended to be a simulation game, and because it would be sold in Japan and Europe in addition to North America, the oval and tri-oval designs were rejected as too repetitive. The final design for the beginner circuit, Three Seven Speedway, used the tri-oval layout with a sharper final turn that requires strong braking. Katagiri said there was no need to develop software for rendering because the Model 2 hardware handled this. The team had difficulty with texture mapping; trial and error was used to find the most effective approach. For camera control and lighting effects, the team drew on its experience developing Virtua Racing. Daytona USA shares some features with Ridge Racer, including a drifting mechanic. Nagoshi initially planned not to include drifting as NASCAR stock cars do not drift, but changed his mind when the team decided not to focus on simulation. The soundtrack was composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.