Super Nitro Racing 3: Free Top-Down Car Racing Game

Super Nitro Racing 3 looks down on the track from above, like a slot-car set built in a muddy jungle. Your yellow muscle car sits on the grid, the lap counter reads 1/5, and a target time glows in the corner. There is no gas pedal to worry about, because the car accelerates on its own. Your whole job is the line: when to turn in, how hard to brake and when to let the nitro go.

That makes it easy to pick up and surprisingly hard to master. Take a hairpin too fast and you slide wide into the barriers, and every hit fills the damage bar under the track. Damage does not heal by itself, so a sloppy lap stays with you. The only fix is to drive over the repair pods on the road, which means sometimes choosing a slower line to grab one.

Nitro works differently from most racers. The bar charges as you drive and only fires when it is full, in one long burst. Waste it on a short straight before a tight corner and you will be braking straight away. Save it for the long run to the finish line and it can win you the lap.

The game has five modes. Time Attack is five laps against a target time. Race puts you against three rivals over five laps. Ghost lets you chase a replay of your own best run, Survival takes away repairs while the weather gets worse, and Championship strings five circuits together and awards points. There are 21 tracks in all, unlocked one at a time, and weather can be left on auto, so rain, snow or fog may change the grip from one race to the next.

The screen is tall rather than wide, which makes Super Nitro Racing 3 a natural fit for a phone held upright, with big buttons for left, right, brake and nitro. It plays just as well on a computer with the arrow keys. It is free in your browser, with no download and no sign-up.