[geRV]

For sports games thats easier to acheive, they have a fixed amount of models viewable at any one time, shorter drawdistance etc. Its easier to pump out a bigger level of detail when you have only a certain amount of things in the scene at one time and not too many graphical effects going on. Even a few years back seeing people play fifa or something, from a distance you would think it was a football game being shown on tv. The fact that sports on tv usually only have a few select camera angles you see it from also helps make the game look more real.