The new RACE 07: Official WTCC Game (**** out of four) puts you in pole position for one wild and exciting ride. The game includes the full 2006 and 2007 FIA WTCC seasons of racing and adds eight other classes to boot. WTCC stands for World Touring Car Championships, part of the FIA (Federation Internationale de L’Automobile) racing federation.

You’ll get to race on 17 different authentically modeled tracks and 15 variations. Tracks range from a simple oval track in Puebla, Mexico, to a curve-filled track in Valencia, Spain, to city tracks in Porto, Portugal, and Macau, China. There are nine different racing classes, with 17 car styles and for each style you can choose from up to 20 different cars all awaiting your driving skills (or lack thereof). The staggering selections of formula and sports cars include the WTCC 2006/2007 cars such as Alfa-Romeo 156, BMW 320si, Honda Accord Euro-R, the "green" Volvo S60 Bio-Ethanol car, the super-fast Formula 3000 460 hp Lola B02/60 cars, Formula BMW cars, and the Mini Cooper S series. All these cars are customizable for a wealth of performance features such as tire pressure, shock stiffness, braking balance, steering, wing angle and such.

Anxious to start racing? Well hang on, because first you have to choose from several modes of play: a Single Quick Race, Race Weekend, full Championship season, Practice with no holds barred and Multiplayer LAN or Internet. The Time Attack mode pits you against friends or your own best time on the same computer. Race against the ghost car of a previous run done either by friends or yourself and see if you can best it. If none of these suit your needs, a Custom Championship mode is available. Here you choose which tracks to race and which cars to use, and the program generates a custom championship for you.

To adjust for various driving skills, you choose from three difficulty levels: Novice, Semi-pro and Professional. The difference is in how forgiving the program is of your driving.

The graphics are top notch. Use either the cockpit or helmet view for a thrilling simulation of driving. Switch to the chase view or surround view for a great overall perspective of how you’re doing. Various effects add to the realism, such as weather changes during a race. Or if you’re racing an open cockpit car and are using the helmet view, be prepared for a splat! There goes a bug--so you’ll have to tear off a protective layer from your faceplate. Damage is realistic, showing what happens when you bump or sideswipe. And if you drive your car full speed into a wall, the car ends up as a pile of little pieces. Not recommended if you want to win a race or two.

We used the program with the Logitech G25 Wheel Kit (Logitech, wheel, shifter, pedals, $299). What a rush! Force feedback in steering, rumble when we ran off the track (all too often), great jerking effects in crashes. Of course, we tried to start off at the Pro level, and it was very humbling. High performance cars are just that and this is not exactly an arcade game but a great simulation, so it was back to Novice--and even there we needed lots of practice what with all the spin-outs, fence crashes and more. The game is highly addicting, and we spent hours trying to improve our racing skill. If you’re into racing simulations, we strongly recommend a force feedback wheel. And plan to spend lots of time "at the wheel."