A confession...

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m very picky about racing games. I don’t care about realistic damage simulation, the effects of tire degradation or the accurate recreation of sports cars that cost the same as a small house.

By the same chalk, I don’t really care for the ability to shoot at the cars I’m racing, or pick up power boosts, or the ability to come off a bump in the road and achieve the sort of pants-wetting heights that should only be attained under the control of a skilled pilot, with an over-friendly air hostess handing you a complimentary gin and tonic and a couple of Mogadon.

So, there you have it, I don’t like racing simulators, and I don’t like arcade racers. I don’t want to feel that my choice of sparkplug is going to come back to haunt me, nor do I want to win by shooting someone with a red tortoiseshell. I want a game that lets me race as if I’m driving a real car on a real track, but doesn’t penalise me for the fact that I can’t drive for toffee.

Which is why I’m expecting to be in the minority when I say that I really enjoyed Superstars V8.

Ok, it’s comparatively limited in tracks and drivers, one moment its penalising you for cutting a measly corner while the next its letting you get away with a massive detour across the grass, and its damage simulation boils down to little more than a wobbly bumper, but if you can get past all that, and the awful heavy metal soundtrack, then you’ve got the sort of racing game they used to make. The sort that makes you call up a bunch of your mates and have them come round to your house (take that, Xbox live) with beers and peanuts and spend an evening passing controllers back and forth, roaring encouragement at each other and feeling like Jimmy Hunt.

Between its howling turbos, surprisingly invulnerable cars and aggressive but not overly intelligent pack, Superstars V8 will have you breaking late, diving for gaps that aren’t there, and generally doing your best to drive intelligently while slowly succumbing to the red mist.

It doesn’t have thoroughly realistic handling, it doesn’t have many tracks, and it’s even missing a few real life cars thanks to licensing issues, but that didn’t stop me having a cracking good time with it.You can watch my in-game footage in my Superstars V8 review.