Unless you are very good at reading fine print, you probably do not know that you have already seen Rallisport Challenge 2 in action. You know the new TV commercial for the Volvo S40? The one where the computer-graphicky driver pushes just a little too hard and wipes out and rolls his red Volvo down a hill and into a ditch? The one where, post-crash, the driver gets out of his shining, undented car and mugs for the camera with swaggering bravado? That commercial is made up entirely of scenes from Rallisport Challenge 2. "Animated Driver on Animated Course," reads the on-screen disclaimer. "Do not attempt."

Commercials that fail to feature actual photo or video images of the cars they are selling are all over the airwaves. Witness the Honda Element made of Lego, for example. It is a hot new trend. Here is a prediction for you to clip and save: One day soon, car commercials will feature no car imagery whatsoever, and will consist exclusively of brash music, psychotomimetic flashes of pulsing light, and brand names. Just give the ad world a few years to get the pitch right.

But back to Rallisport Challenge 2. No, you should not attempt to roll your Volvo S40 three times into a ditch, if you are lucky enough to own a Volvo S40 in real life. But should a virtual Volvo S40 fall into your hands (say, because you are really good at virtual driving in video games), by all means crash the hell out of it. It will be fun and you will not hurt yourself as a result.

The game is all about going really fast and not hurting yourself. Set loosely in the world of rally racing (that branch of motorsports devoted to driving bespoilered hatchbacks at ridiculous speeds on the most forbidding dirt and gravel and ice courses available), it asks you to throw caution and prudence to the wind in the name of crossing the finish line first. You will be happy to oblige.

You begin your racing career with a highly unimpressive hatchback. It has a big spoiler on the back and is covered with decals promoting motor oil. But its engine is highly tuned, and when you hit the accelerator it leaps like a wild animal. It skids when you take it around hairpin turns. It skids more when you take it around hairpin turns on dirt roads. On ice it slides all over the place. But it is fun, all this skidding, and in short order you learn how to make it even more fun.

You head into a corner at full throttle, you turn hard and yank on the emergency brake, and the back end of your hatchback slides around obligingly. You stomp on the gas again, your back end wobbles back into line, and you roar toward the next corner. It is exhilarating doing this. You will wish the game's designers had put more hairpin turns on the race tracks, just to give you the pleasure of skidding around them.

Now. Before you master the art of flawless skidding, you will drive into a lot of barns and barriers and cliff faces. This will bang up your car. It will take almost nothing to knock your rear bumper loose. You will shatter your back window a few moments into your first race. Hitting a tree will knock your hood clean off. The good news is that none of this seems to hinder your car's drivability in the slightest. You can all but demolish your hatchback and still hit your ideal top speed without a fuss.

It is as if your team spent its engineering dollars where they counted, and allowed the motor oil decals do the hard work of holding the body together. This may disappoint you, particularly if you liked the Volvo S40 commercial. On the bright side, you really are free to roll your car as often as you please, and somehow your crew always has the paint gleaming again before the start of the next race.

When you race online against more than three other people, all the other cars turn into ghosty little wireframes, which you can drive right through. You will have a tough time deciding if this is annoying or neat.