Racing

First things first: racing cars of any sort is an expensive, time-consuming sport. Many drivers begin their training when they outgrow their Big Wheels (although a previous CNET post shows that size doesn't matter when it comes to Big Wheel racing), but just because you weren't born into a racing family or started karting when you were 6 doesn't mean it's too late to become a professional race car driver.

Volkswagen has teamed up with iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations to develop an online racing simulator video game of its SCCA Pro Racing Jetta TDI Cup series. … Read more

This week, Apple surpassed an amazing milestone at the iTunes app store: one billion downloads. Apple had been running a contest called the Billion App Countdown promotion with prizes including a chance to win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, a MacBook Pro, an iPod Touch, and more. Though the contest ended once they reached their mark (winners will be announced soon), it's still an amazing feat and clearly implies the apps are going to keep on coming. That's great news for iPhone app lovers like us!

It's no secret that the most popular apps at the … Read more

Ferrari Virtual Race won't win Game of the Year, but it may kill your afternoon as you zip around the track in your dream car.

The game is free and downloads in just a few minutes. In addition to choosing your car (599 GTB Fiorano, 612 Scaglietti, or 430 Scuderia) and color (from a choice of a dozen), players can chose their track and number of opponents. Soon players will be able to race each other online for prizes.

Driving is fairly straightforward, with standard keyboard controls. Cameras, (two chase cameras, hoop, cockpit and bumper) can be changed on … Read more

I finally found something useful on Twitter. Ferrari is offering a free downloadable video game for PCs on their Web site (thanks @GTChannel).

In Ferrari Virtual Race, players can choose a car from a lineup of Ferraris, consisting of the 599 GTB Fiorano, 612 Scaglietti, and 430 Scuderia. Gamers can customize their selected car in the Atelier to get it race ready, and test their driving skills on the Mugello circuit.

For the moment, players race against the computer. However, Ferrari plans to release an online version that enables people to compete against friends over the Internet.

To download the … Read more

In keeping with an Easter tradition of a different sort, hundreds of riders and spectators gathered at the top of a hill in San Francisco near McKinley Square to take part in the ninth annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race.

Decked out in costumes ranging from evil Easter Bunnies to superheros to the just plain bizarre, participants raced to the bottom of Vermont Street on Big Wheels, plastic firetrucks, and even coolers-on-wheels for little more than bragging rights and novelty prizes. … Read more

It's been a long hiatus since the last time a human strode across the lunar terrain, and we're still some years out from the next planned mission to the moon.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't tinker around with notions of how astronauts in the not-too-distant future might get around the Sea of Tranquility or some other lunar destination. That's part of the driving force behind NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race, an annual event geared toward college and high school students.

The mission: design and build a lightweight, human-powered buggy, then race it around a … Read more

I know people will do anything online these days.

But it is hard not to rubber-neck when someone does something so astonishingly witless that even your serially drunken aunt wouldn't do it at Christmas dinner.

Please consider the curious case of Benjamin Ryan.

He gets himself a VW Golf. He has it tweaked for maximum torque. Then he goes a little torque mad. He decides to race a friend of his along a freeway, his friend being the proud owner of an Audi RS4. They travel at speeds that touch 130 mph.

It so happens that another friend rides … Read more

Aqua Moto Racing is an attractive, addictive, and highly replayable 3D Jet Ski racing game--and one of the best games of its kind available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. You control your Jet Ski with simple, intuitive controls: you tilt your device right or left to turn (the farther you tilt, the tighter the turn), and you touch the left side of the screen to brake and the right side to "boost." This temporary speed increase uses the "boost" meter, which you recharge by passing buoys closely and performing stunts off of ramps. Performing tricks … Read more

We love racing games here at Car Tech. So we jumped at the opportunity to play a preview build of its upcoming Need for Speed: Shift when we were invited by EA.

Need for Speed: Shift is the first of a three-pronged split of the Need for Speed franchise that will also include Nitro--a casual, arcade racer--and World Online--sort of a racing sim MMORPG.

We were particularly blown away by the fully modeled interiors of the vehicles, which included fully functional gauges and mirrors. Having recently sat in many of the test vehicles, we were impressed by the level of … Read more