Russian Cars Racing

You're dropped into a chilly Russian garage with a dusty VAZ 2108 waiting for its next round of scrapes and dings. In "Russian Cars Racing", the first thing you notice is the car's square shape and how it rattles when you hit the gas. Russian roads are all over the place—sometimes broken pavement, dirt, sometimes a puddle that looks deeper than it should. You can't pick anything fancy at the start. Everybody gets the same old-school ride. You'll see muddy tracks, a couple of wild dogs, and maybe a policeman on the corner eyeing your fender.

How to play?

When you start playing Russian Cars Racing, you get a handful of driving modes—racing, drifting, drag, rally, parking, and just cruising around. Only three are open at first. You need to nail the drift and parking challenges before the others unlock. For parking, you squeeze your VAZ into a marked spot without bumping anything. There's a timer, so no hanging around. Drifting means sliding through green checkpoints while the tires screech—if you keep the drift going, your score shoots up fast. Drag mode drops you onto a short strip with a traffic jam at the far end. If you misjudge the gears or clip a bumper, that's it, you're out. Rally mode mixes up dirt, puddles, and rocks; you have to hit set points in order, sometimes with mud splashing up past the windshield. You can wander in for a free ride if you need a break—just watch for police, since they'll chase you if you plow through stop signs. I tried painting the car camo after a few wins; it looks weird, but nobody else has it. The drifting bit took me the longest. Still, the way the VAZ leans into a turn is kind of fun once you get the hang of it.