Making your car go is as simple as the press of a button. Making it compete with other pro racers on the same track requires coordination. At the bottom of your screen are all the readouts you could possibly want on your car. Fuel mixture, tire wear, rev counter, draft meter, and much more are kept up to date and relayed to you on screen. Depending on the difficulty setting you have the game at, these things will be more or less important to you. The harder you set it, the more realistic things get.
Besides the garage, the pit will be the only other place you'll see your car standing still. When you pull in here, you can quickly tell your crew which things you want fixed, depending on your position in the race. Unfortunately though, the extent of the damage will only go so far as to emit smoke from your engine. Your car can't get in any wrecks out on the track, or even get banged up. This is one of the most disappointing things about the game, and had they included it, it would have topped off the realism cake with a very nice layer of icing.
Though it does replicate circuit racing rather well, Indy Car Series can get a little stale after some time. There is a 2-player mode, but finding a friend who is willing to race around in a circle for an hour is a hard task. Also, the lack of huge crashes, even the ability to turn them on or off in the game, is a serious mar to the gameplay. Unless you happen to watch this stuff on TV regularly and actually enjoy it, steer clear of this one.
