Just wondering if there are any CivFanatics who also are closet race car drivers... If so, perhaps we can race each other sometime...

Ooooh, Nascar... That's typically Usanian race game... I never really liked the Nascar racing series. Maybe because driving over an elliptic track was quite making me sleep... You could play F1 Racing 2000... :) Or even some futuristic games such as Dethkarz, Rollcage...

Nascar games tend to get very bad reviews in England and I think they decided not to release Nascar 4 here...There are some nice java racing games that me and Genghis have played online and they are pretty fun...

I played Need for speed III Hot Pursuit a lot, actually I spent way too many hours driving way too fast. In the end it kind of lost its attraction to me and I uninstalled it from my computer. I while ago I saw they are planning a sequel to Hot Pursuit so maybe I'll go and check it out (once they've released a bug-free version).

Does anybody remember a game called Indianapolis 500? It was an indycar racing game from several years ago and it was my first introduction with oval racing games and I really liked it. Instead of really being skilled in racing oval racing needs you to set up your car perfectly, do a good qualification run and then in the race slipstreaming and hazardous taking over. I like it a lot!

NASCAR 4 is the same way... A setup is vital... Then the hardest part is the battle over inches on the race track as you have door to door racing for 500 miles...

Does the game really go for the full 500 miles?

You can, but it would be waaaay too nerve wracking... I usually run around 100 miles in my races... That is still a LONG time...