NASCAR Racing 2003 Season

NASCAR Racing 2003 has all the licenses, all the tracks and all the drivers from the US event, but you can't disguise the fact that for $30 you could buy four metres of Scalextric track and have twice the fun.

If driving round in circles wasn't boring enough, the game presents the same boxy graphics seen in previous versions. Even with every detail switched on and the draw distance at maximum, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were looking at last year's software. Although a squint at the tarmac reveals some nice bump mapping effects, it all still looks cold, razor-edged and just plain uninteresting.

Gameplay is largely unchanged, with Tutorial, Quick Race and Championship modes on offer, although the artificial intelligence - now adjusted automatically throughout the races - has improved markedly. Cars are meant to deform in accidents, but we found no evidence - crash into a wall, and the bonnet remains on its hinges. Turn around and head the other way (You've been disqualified for dangerous driving!) and opponents brush you aside as though they're hewn from concrete girders.

In its favour, the engine noises are perhaps the best we've heard, the lovingly rendered cockpit features an array of fully working gauges, while the physics are real yet playable.

True to form, the Americans use the word International' a lot in describing NASCAR, just as they use World Series' to describe baseball, but the sad truth is that nobody outside the US is interested in either.