Patent ID: 7402106

Claim:
A car racing game for use by a number of players to simulate a race, the game comprising: a plurality of self-propelled race cars each selectively controllable by one of the players; a plurality of control stations each associated with one of the race cars, each station including a steering wheel and a throttle for allowing one of the players to actively control the movement of one of the plurality of race cars during the race; a continuous race track; a computer controller coupled to each of the control stations and operable to relay player control commands to each of the race cars being actively controlled by the players during the race, the player control commands being based on the position of the steering wheel and the throttle as controlled by one of the players at one of the control stations such that the players can actively control the race car associated with the control station; a directional beam emitter contained within each race car and positioned to generate a car directional beam extending along the direction of movement of the race car; and a plurality of lane sensors positioned along an outer boundary of the race track and coupled to the computer controller, where each of the lane sensors is operable to receive the directional beam from the race cars such that the computer controller can determine the position of the race car based upon which of the plurality of lane sensors detect the directional beam, wherein the computer controller is operable to automatically generate computer control commands to control the movement of the race cars not being actively controlled by one of the players to direct the race cars not being actively controlled by one of the players along the race track such that all of the plurality of race cars are active during each race.