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With the current trend towards athletics simulations, you might expect a game called The Great American Cross-Country Road Race to be all about marathon running - shades of Flanagan's Run, Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and all that.

A gruelling race game this certainly is, but not on foot. A powerful racing car is your mode of transport.

Road Race (well, I'm not typing that title out again!) is Activision's latest and follows in the best traditions of Pole Position and Pit Stop.

My thanks to Software Express of Birmingham for speedily arranging to let me have a review copy as soon as it became available here.

At bottom, the game is a race against other drivers across America. But there's more to it than just welting past everything on four wheels.

To begin with, you can try to compete against any one of nine fields of already established times. Each field consists of the best results of ten drivers.

Then there are four west to east coast cross-country races to choose from: Los Angeles to New York, Seattle to Miami, San Francisco to Washington, and the US Tour. The latter is a toughie since it requires you to drive through every city on the map.

The map pops up once you've selected your race. And this is much, much more fun than a bit of gloss - careful planning and selection at this stage should help you achieve good times. Equally, slapdash selection may well be regretted before you even reach your first checkpoint.

A flashing circle on the map denotes your point of departure, while a pulsating arrow indicates a possible next stop on your route. By joystick movement, the arrow can be positioned to another destination city. Only those cities connnected by a major road to your departure point are available for selection.

A scrolling bulletin across the top of the screen tells you the conditions on the road you have chosen. You have to be careful - things like lane closures, the dreaded roadworks or oil slicks could cause you to lose valuable time.

The weather conditions are no less critical in your route selection. Just like our good old Met Office maps, this one has plenty of those cute little symbols. Snowflakes and rainclouds indicate just that while clouds without rain indicate fog. It all seems more like Britain than the US of A!

A clock indicates your time of departure. It can be set to any time you like. But watch it - you could end up driving at night or arriving at a city in the middle of the rush hour.

Now the race is on. The screen changes to reveal a Pole Position type scene: blue sky, green sward, a city skyline and your car sitting on a central road which tapers into the distance.

At the foot of the screen, reading from left to right, is a fuel gauge, a rev counter, timer, mileometer, speedometer and radar trap warning.

The timer counts down, showing how much time remains for you to complete this leg of the journey. Failure to reach your destination before the timer reaches zero disqualifies you from the race, and that means you'll have to start all over again.

If you beat the clock the spare time is added to the time allowed for the next stage, so it pays to burn rubber.

The mileometer also counts down, telling you how much further to your target city. The radar warning lights up when a police speed trap lies ahead - you'll know anyway because sirens start blasting.

You have two choices when hitting a trap - slow down or try to outrun the while police car. If you're caught, you stop dead, the police car pulls alongside, a sardonic message is displayed, like "Where's the fire?" and you're stuck there for several precious seconds. At least you don't get booked!

Left and right movement of the car is controlled by similar movements of the joystick. The fire button is used to accelerate, and pulling back on the joystick applies the brakes.

Gear changing is neatly handled. When the rev counter reaches the 9 o' clock position - and by then the engine is beginning to scream - the fire button is released and a quick forward tap of the joystick causes a change up. Similarly, a quick backward tap shifts the gears down.

All very easy to get the hang of and, coupled with the appropriate engine noises, adds much to the motor racing atmosphere of the game.

There are four gears. Shift too soon and the car will respond sluggishly. Shift too late and you could blow your engine and have to push the car to the next service station. Pushing is accomplished by tapping doggedly away at the fire button.

You'll also have to push if you run out of petrol. Warning messages are given when you are approaching a service station.

The station is shown as a pink petrol pump and you must pull up beside it. Your car will be automatically refilled and/or repaired.

It's all too easy to overshoot, or stop by mistake at a cactus, when you've been haring along at 150mph.

If you're not driving very fast, other drivers - and there are lots of them - go flashing past but never hit you from behind. The same cannot be said for you.

If you hit a car while overtaking your car instantly switches to bottom gear and slides over to the side of the truck. Luckily, it hasn't stalled.

Arrive at the city within the time limit and you'll be greeted with a jolly tune and a welcome sign. Then it's back to the map to select the route for your next leg.

Run out of time, and you'll be told "Sorry" and be out of the race.

The sound effects certainly add to the air of excitement and joystick response is perfect.

The graphics are first rate - I especially liked the changes in skylines, the gradually darkening scene as night descends and the smooth high speed scrolling.

Add these qualities to the planning elements, the combinations of possible routes and the variety of the challenge, and you have a very good race game indeed. This is one I would unhesitatingly recommend to any race game fan.