Don’t let the name fool you: this new arcade racer has about as much in common with America’s premier stock-car series as oversweetened Kool-Aid has with an award-winning microbrew. After a few sips, you’ll want to wash your palette clean.

The game’s NASCAR licensing — including 15 drivers and a half-dozen tracks — lends it a modicum of authenticity, but Unleashed doesn’t even try to capture the sport’s wheel-to-wheel dynamic. Instead of intense drafting battles on Daytona’s high banks, you get cartoonish romps through some outlandish track layouts (“inspired” by real-world locations) that resemble Hot Wheels configurations built by a kid with ADHD. Crashing out your rivals earns you power boosts that can rocket you from last to first in mere seconds, so it really doesn’t matter where you’re positioned until the last half-lap.

The multi-tiered Championship mode gets progressively harder as you try to time your boost power-ups to hit the required advancement position, but more often than not, you’ll rocket into an inconveniently placed obstacle and drop straight to the back while the inane background commentary berates you for failing some secondary goal. Apart from banging into you as much as possible, the idiotic A.I. cars offer no real challenge to your ultimate finishing position; unfortunately, you’re pretty much stuck with them, as the game’s only multiplayer option is a two-player split-screen mode.

NASCAR fan or no, you’ll want to steer clear of Unleashed.

PUBLISHER: Activision  •  DEVELOPER: Firebrand Games  •  ESRB: Everyone  •  MULTIPLAYER: 2 on split-screen only  •  ACHIEVEMENTS: Easy  •  COST: $40

On Xbox 360

+ It'll set you back only $40.

– Cartoon physics and yo-yo A.I. turn single-player events into repetitive yawnfests.

– No online-multiplayer support.

? How hard is it to script some decent (and varied) background commentary?

4.5