This is not an arcade racer though. Where Burnout and it’s ilk see’s fit to give you a helping hand around corners with invisible walls and hand-holding side-scrapes, Flatout is far more punishing. This is a racer, through and through, albeit licked with a paint of Redneck spittle. Firing yourself headlong into a pile of racers won’t see you winning a race any time soon, picking your fights and keeping a good racing line is the way to victory here.

Some may see this as a real drawback. "What about all the smashy smashy!?" I hear you whine. There’s still plenty of smashy smashy to be had, dear whiners, in fact, you’d be hard pressed not to be smacking into something every 10 seconds. The tracks are practically littered with traffic cones, tyres, structures and petrol stations to devour with your all-powerful breaking vehicle. Destroying things around you, and beating up opponents with a tactful punt in the exhaust pipe will see your Nitro meter slowly gaining pace.

Those mucky pups...

Using your Nitro at the perfect time is your best bet to success when the action heats up. See a crash ahead of you? Slam the boost on and scoot around, pushing your position up a few places, keeping ahead of the pack and ahead of the carnage. While some people will see fit to jump straight into this game with one foot on the accelerator and their other foot out of the window, having a steady breaking reaction is your key to corner sliding, power sliding out with a tasty Nitro injection.

That’s right, there’s tactics here. Racing tactics. You know, those tactics you’d use in... well... a real racer. And that’s probably the biggest stand out point here. You have all the fun of a smashtastic arcade frenzy, and the straight-edged po-faced seriousness of a slack-steering sim. The craziest thing of all though, is that it works.