Nikola Karcev is born on 31 of March 1981 in Skopje. Although he is born in Skopje, he started his career in Belgrade, Serbia, in the team FK Partizan Beograd where he played in the youth teams. He made his proffesional debut in his homeland with FK Vardar Skopje where he played for 5 seasons before moving to local rivals FK Rabotnicki Skopje. With Vardar he won two championship titles, and later one with Rabotnicki. Last summer he went to Albanian team KF Elbasani where he was proclaimed as their best player for the season 2007/2008.

Karcev is the second Macedonian to play for Terek as Goran Dimovski is already there. According to the club's official web site, he will wear the number 43 on his back. Terek is from the capital city of the Chechnya federal state and is playing on the Sultan Bilimkhanov stadium. Last season Terek finished 2nd in the second league and gained promotion to the Premier Liga.

Previously Karcev was very close to sign for romanian side CS Pandurii-Lignitul Târgu-Jiu but the deal failed. He has played two games for the Macedonian national team and has scored one goal, in the 2:1 win against Iran away in 2005.