The trouble with Stateside sports is that the Americans usually just pinch a perfectly good game and Yank it up a bit. American Football? That's just rugby for jessies with a penchant for shoulder pads, isn't it? Baseball? Over complicated rounders, surely? And so it is with IndyCar Racing. Do we really know or care enough about the sceptics' take on Formula One to fork out for the sim? Questionable.

So, while this game is as faithful a representation of the sport as you could wish for, it's just plain dull when you pit it against the likes of F1, TOCA and Gran Turismo. The main issue we have with it concerns the tracks. There are fourteen of 'em and, while each has its own distinctive characteristics (length, curvature, banking, etc), they're all oval shaped. Think Gran Turismo but with a single model of car to drive and only variations of the Super Speedway circuit to race on and you've pretty much got the picture.

What's more, the races are staggeringly long - a full race comes in at around 200 laps. That's a whole lotta going around in a loop. If the sport ever becomes established this side of the pond, you can just imagine the AA slapping 'Tiredness Can Kill - Take A Break' signs all around the circuit. Of course, you don't have to plump for the full 200 laps and can choose anything from ten upwards, but because care performance is pretty much identical across the grid, the lower the lap count, the less chance you have of bagging a victory.

We've been pretty disparaging about the sport but this isn't a badly made game. Far from it, in fact. All the production values you'd associate from the firm that brought you the Colin McRae and TOCA games are here. The presentation is slick and efficient with ABC commentator Bob Jenkins dishing out advice on the tracks and car set-up, and Indy veteran Eddie Cheever Jr training up beginners in masterclass mode.

Technically there's little to quibble about either. The cars, which reach speeds in excess of 200mph, handle nicely and the tweaking and tuning options, an essential part of gameplay if you want to achieve top-tier success, will keep petrolheads in automative heaven. You can also tinker till your fingers cramp up, including tyre pressure, ride height, weight displacement and traction control. If you're the kind of driving game nut who spends half a week in the toilet reading Auto Trader, you'll no doubt be happy with all this.

But for all its merits, the inescapable blandness of the tracks means the game gets tedious very rapidly. Yes, it's fast and furious racing and on the harder difficulty settings it's as involving and as taxing as any other motorsport is. But for the love of God, give us something other than two straights and four sweeping left-hand corners.

Graphics 80%
Decent car and track models, and sizzling frame rate.

Sound 70%
Throaty engines and a generic rock soundtrack.

Gameplay 60%
Testing but ultimately laborious.

Lifespan 70%
At 200 laps per full race, it's almost too long.

Overall 60%
A high-velocity, efficient and attractive take on the racing sim, but the tracks are damn boring.