You drive: One of 16 custom cars that have up to 700 horse power and can go up to 200 miles per hour. Each car can be cusomized with engines, turbos, gear ratios, steering speed, tire pressure, and other variables. Bethesda describes them as "revolutionary high-tech, race-bred automobiles."

Tracks: There are twenty two tracks, eight of which are actual tracks, including Lime Rock and Mid Ohio. The tracks are recreated with all the trimmings, buildings, elevation (not just flat anymore), ten fantasy concept speedways, and four test tracks which can be used to tune your car, such as the high-speed oval, telemetry, skid pad, or handling track.

Driving model: Bethesda claims they talked to racing luminaries like Carol Shelby, responsible for the 1965 Shelby Cobra and other muscle cars, about the design and performance. Actual Indy car and Formula 1 racer telemetry was used to model the physics which govern the movement of the cars. The model will include real racing conditions, such as weather and night racing.

Editors: Customize your car to improve performance. A special telemetry section feature will put the data at your disposal, which then can be used to assist with the customization process.

Graphics: While the cars and other information will be highly detailed with all the three dimensional trimmings from light-sourcing to texture-mapping, we all want to know how spectacular the explosions will be. Similar to the battlemech products, actual car parts will fly off the cars during accidents accompanied by clouds of smoke. Individual car parts both on and flying off the vehicle will show realistic damage, requiring additional renderings of damaged parts. Resolution of 640x480 pixels in 256-color is in the works.

Views: Racing and light simulator games have many camera angles and Xcar will be no different with multiple camera angles and the popular Virtual VCR feature to evaluate and review your race performance.

Difficulty: A matrix of reality controls will adjust the difficulty levels to each players personal preference or skill levels.

Artificial intelligence: ?

Sound: Redbook audio, general MIDI soundtrack and directional sound effects are planned.

Multiplayer: Up to 8 players will play over a network or hopefully internet, and two can play on null or phone modem connection.

Reference:
Cindy Yans, Hot town, Summer in Bethesda: Why it got to late to go to the nudie bar, Computer Games Strategy Plus, issue 70, September, 1996, pg. 20-22. Steve Bauman, Computer Games, issue 76, March, 1997, pg. 24.