I'm pretty sure anyone who wanted a sack of scam coins could have picked them up in the last 2 years.
BTC-E adds coins that
Novacoin is there because it is an old coin - early 2013. Back then there were only a few dozen alts, and BTC-E listed them all (and then delisted the non performers). Then in about Oct 2013 they stopped adding new coins. So lots of coins that had a lot of volume at one point (Doge, Blackcoin, Dash, etc) didn't get listed.
They were concentrating on the Bitcoin market - but seem to have decided to get back into alts again.
BTC-E did not list all coins available. You must have confused them with Vircurex (the Cryptsy of 2013)!
IIRC, BTC-E admitted Novacoin bribed them, outrage ensured, and they finally agreed to burn their bribe coins.