The destruction derby has always been racing’s odd country cousin. No corporate sponsorships, no national TV coverage, and no big-name drivers – just a bunch of good ol’ folks going down to the local track on a Saturday night to watch a bunch of guys who are a few hens short of a coop smash junk cars into each other. Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (EoD) unabashedly revels in the glory of this “sport”, putting you in the role of a good ol’ boy trying to make a name for himself among the area’s goobers by becoming the king of the derby.

The centerpiece of EoD is its career mode in which you start at the bottom of the rankings ladder and must work your way up to the top by winning races and earning respect by beating other drivers in “unofficial” off-track races and challenges. Between races you can drive the country roads of your backwater home, stopping by the local junkyard to shop for a new clunker or the local diner to look for racers to challenge. When you’re ready to race a short drive to the edge of town will give you a list of tracks currently holding derbies.

EoD provides a variety of different race types in the derbies that fall into two basic categories – speed and survival. Some of the competitions are a simple matter of being the last car standing, but even in the speed races tapping, bashing, and outright destroying your opponents is perfectly legal and a vital part of your racing strategy. The derbies take place on a number of different track types that range from a closed corral to several figure 8 variants. Some of the more wild tracks are a figure 8 with ramps at the intersection point and a suicide track in which half of the competitors race around the track in one direction while the other half go in the opposite direction. While there are a fair number of tracks in the game, you’ll see them all before too long and they are the same no matter which venue you’re racing in. Luckily the gameplay manages to keep the races interesting each time you run a derby.

Trying to turn your opponent’s junker into a pile of junk can be a blast, and there’s an added dimension to the racing since you’re not only trying to get your car around the track as quickly as possible you’re also looking to knock your opponents out of the race while preventing them from doing the same to you. Needless to say this leads to some wild moments and unexpected twists that add a lot of excitement to the racing. In one race I was having trouble catching the leader on a figure 8 track, but won the race in a very satisfying fashion after watching him get t-boned in mid-air by a car jumping the intersection from the other direction.

The driving itself straddles the line between arcade and sim style control. The cars handle pretty easily but you still need to pick a good line through turns and manage your speed to avoid skidding off of the track. The fact that you’re driving clunkers that are lucky to do 90 instead of Formula 1 racers at 200 MPH also helps. There are a good variety of cars available in the game, from subcompacts through school busses and hearses. The game has a pretty good damage model and you’ll feel your control over your car slipping as it takes more and more damage. Collisions will also cause various parts to come loose and litter the track, so by the end of a race there can be a veritable obstacle course on the track.

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