Do car games exert greater pressure on Graphics Cards?

Probally not the game itself

Graphic cards are known to give out anytime no matter what is in use

Just take it as it failed and look for a suitable replacement

Also games like that especially older tittles won't put a fraction of pressure on the GPU
as newer tittles like SKYRIM CALL OF DUTY etc

your card was probally old and time for it to move on to the after life

If it is still new and have a warrenty just send it in for repair but if not chalk it up to age

UdAkDev said:

Thanks! Also my previous card had a squealing noise. Could that have been a bad sign as well? It had a GPU fan too...

Yes squiling means either your fan bearings are done or something is wrong with it period

If anything that was the sign of it failing hopefully it didnt damage anything else while going kaput

Do car games exert greater pressure on Graphics Cards?

depends whether you use nitro or not
sorry couldnt resist.

UdAkDev said:

Could it be that NFS, and car games in general, exert greater pressure on the VGA Cards than normal strategy games?

No, as SSS mentioned it was probably just coincidence.

Some games, regardless of genre, ie FPS, Racing, RTS etc will put more load on the GPU than others.

If the squealing noise on your old card wasn't fan related, it was probably a capacitor on it's way out.

New card, you'll be fine to play NFS :)