NASCAR 2011 The Game promises to strap you into the driver's seat of a high-powered race car and send you speeding around a track at some 200 mph.
And it does that with style, but why does my car always seem to be drawn to the wall like a vulture to roadkill?
Developed by Eutechnyx, NASCAR 2011 brings back a popular video game franchise that had been stuck in a pit stop for a time. Back in 2009 EA gave up the license, which now has been picked up by Activision and Eutechnyx.
Here you will find all the top NASCAR drivers, their cars and the tracks they drive on.
In the Career game mode players guide their favorite driver through 36 races hoping to make it to The Chase, the final 10 races of the season.
In each race players earn NASCAR experience points by drafting, passing, leading laps and placing high on the leaderboard. The points you earn can be spent on your ranking, new paint schemes and NASCAR pins.
The other game modes are: Race Now, Eliminator, Invitational Events, Practice and Track Testing. In Eliminator, the car in last place is the end of each lap is removed from the race.
During a race there a tools on screen to help guide you.
The Proximity Radar shows the position of other cars relative to yours, while the Draft Indicator reveals if your car is catching the drafting advantage from the car ahead of it. There also is a Brake Indicator and Position Tracker.
Your car's spotter offers advice on where your car is and what the road ahead looks like.
NASCAR 2011 delivers an experience that should entertain both casual and hardcore race enthusiasts.
Serious player will want to get into the garage. It is here where you can finetune how a car's various components are set up for a particular track. Drivers can test those set-ups during in track testing mode.
As far as the damage modeling goes, it worked great as far as I could tell. Believe me, I took little time in crashing my car into either the wall or other cars.
The graphics in NASCAR 2011 look great and the sense of speed it generates is exhilarating.
There probably are few things that can compare to hurtling down a track at 200 mph with 42 cars within and arm's reach.
NASCAR 2011 The Game is available from Activision for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Visit NASCARTheGame.com.
(Note: The game launched in retail with 2010 details but a free update provides all the cars, drivers, paint schemes, races and more for 2011.)