The game of "Race Track" is played on a grid. You can try a course by yourself or compete against up to three other players. Each player is assigned a "car," shown as a small square, of a different color.

From the opening menu, select the number of players and which racetrack you want to use (simple, options, curves, shortcut, or tricky). There is also an option for designing your own course.

Each player in turn simply moves his or her car ahead along the track to a new grid point. The new grid point and the straight line joining it to the previous grid point must lie entirely within the track. No two cars can occupy the same point at the same time.

NOTE: To play this game, your Web browser must be able to run Java applets. This applet runs best on Netscape, Firefox, Opera, and some versions of Internet Explorer.

To make a move when it's your turn, click on one of the nine points that lie on a pale square associated with your car. Depending on which point you pick, your car can speed up one unit, slow down one unit, or stay at the same speed. It can also continue in the same straight line or move one unit horizontally or vertically. In effect, a car can maintain its speed in either direction, or it can change its speed by only one unit distance per move. The first move must be one unit straight ahead.

If you crash into a wall, you lose several turns, depending on how fast you were going at the time of the crash.

The first car across the finish line (green) wins. Click "View Replay" to see the paths followed by the racing cars.

Java applet created by Eric Peterson, 18, Washington, D.C.

For a description of the game, see an article by Martin Gardner, "Sim, Chomp, and Racetrack," in Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainments (New York: W.H. Freeman, 1986).

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