MOTORSPORT: Nissan Altima could race on

You won't find a Nissan Altima in Australian dealerships any more, but if Nissan renews its commitment to Supercars racing beyond 2018 there is a strong chance you will continue to see it on the track.

The Altima bodyshape has been the basis of the factory-backed Nissan Supercar campaign run by the Kelly family since 2013.

They debuted the car on-track at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide months before the road-going version went on-sale. But the road-car was pulled from dealerships in mid-2017 because Nissan was not prepared to upgrade it to Euro 5 emissions.

The small Pulsar hatch and Micra mini were discontinued in 2016 and the Pulsar sedan in 2017, leaving Nissan Australia without a bonafide mainstream passenger car in its range.

Intriguingly, Nissan has hinted about the return of the Altima, with the next generation debuting at the New York show this month.

Later this week the four factory Nissan Altimas will roll on to the track in Adelaide to commence their sixth campaign, alongside the also defunct Ford Falcon FG X, which went out of production in 2016, and the brand-new Holden Commodore ZB

New Nissan Australia managing director Stephen Lester, who must soon make the call on whether the Supercars program - which has yielded just two wins in five seasons - will continue, told motoring.com.au at last week's Nissan Navara Series 3 launch that Altima was every chance to race on.

"Absolutely," he said. "There could be a lot of different permutations of things so when the time is right we'll have an answer on exactly what the direction is going to be and how we are going to execute it.

"It [Altima] hasn't been sold for a while in Australia and it's been raced so I am not sure that would impact it."

Lester, who travelled to several Supercars events in 2017 and hopes to be in Adelaide this weekend, said there was no timeline yet established for a decision on whether Nissan races on.

The last time Nissan was in this positon in 2016 it took until September to make a call and extended two years, saying it had to do that because it had delayed the decision so long.

"We are working through with the team … we are looking forward to getting the season underway and getting them off to the best start possible," said Lester.

"I am not going to speculate on dates or timing for that. We certainly have our own corporate decision-making process that we have to undertake for a decision of this magnitude and with a partner that has been with us as long as they have.

"We will continue those discussions behind closed doors and when the timing is right we will come out with response to it."

While he characterises himself as a motorsport fan, Lester said the decision would be solely based on "what's best for the company". He declined to say whether he thought Nissan's involvement in racing had been beneficial.

"I am not really the expert in this. I can see what the numbers show from a return on investment from a media standpoint and those all look very positive and have always looked positive.

"I wasn't here for the vast majority of the time of course. We have to look at the decision not necessarily just in the context of whether it was positive, but whatever you are doing today is it going to be positive for you down the road."

Meanwhile, Lester acknowledged that Nissan's dearth of models in the sub-$25,000 passenger car/crossover segment needed to be addressed.

In the current Nissan Australia line-up only two models from the JUKE mini-SUV range are priced under $25,000, before on-road costs.

"Thirty per cent of the total market is in the sub-$25,000 category, so when we are not playing in where 30 per cent of the cars are being sold we need to address that," he said.

Predictably, Lester wasn't that forthcoming about what vehicles are on Nissan Australia's potential list and when they might come here.

"There is a very wide gamut of product that is possible for the market," he hinted.

"At the end of the day, it's as soon as possible," he added on timing. "The pressure is on."

Former Nissan Australia chief Richard Emery told motoring.com.au just before he departed last August that any new passenger models would be at least 18 months away, so next year at the earliest.

At the time, he said possible models included Europe's latest Micra and Pulsar, Japan's Note, South America's Kicks mini-SUV and North America's Sentra (Pulsar sedan).