I don’t know a great deal of Indy Racing, but from what I can figure out, it seems to be a racing event using Formula 1 cars (or one of the lower powered kinds) on short ring tracks. Indy Racing 2000 takes an arcade spin on this, with easy handling and generous collision.

And the generosity with the collisions is quite vital. The races begin with a rolling start, with a great sense of speed. However, it’s absolutely chaotic, with cars slamming into each other and spinning like crazy. This makes for an intense start of the race, which is far more exciting than the end, as the easy handling on the simple tracks means that there isn’t much to do.

But it seems that that section of the game (which consists of “single race” and “championship”) is just one portion of Indy Racing 2000. On the menu is a “Gold Cup” which is nearly dismissed as just a different kind of tournament to the championship. I was pleasantly surprised, then, that this is actually a very significant – and pretty great – separate mode. Almost a different game.

Here you work through different kinds of racing cars, from midget cars to sprint cars to Formula cars. However, the simple ring tracks are gone, and replaced with far more interesting tracks. They’re still nice and wide, but they feature some lovely background landscapes with some fun features like jungles and shipwrecks, and are a ton of fun for racing on.

It’s rather baffling that these tracks aren’t available in the single race option, as it would be nice to pick a track to race on. Still, it’s interesting that the best mode of the game is pushed down as a little bonus. If you like racing games that try to blend serious and arcade elements, this is a good example.

Fun

Remake or remaster?

A simple re-release to make it available in more regions would be fine.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Indy Racing 2000