TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge

They say the best racing drivers are fearless, which is effectively a polite way of saying they're stupid.

Hurtling around circuits at triple-figure speeds should feel frightening, because regardless of how good car safety has become and how Schumacher-esque your skills, it remains a dangerous activity. The human body wasn't made to travel at such velocity, much less to decelerate violently from it in the event of an intimate encounter with a barrier.

The best racing games, then, should scare you. You should feel the tension of being sat on the starting grid surrounded by revving engines while waiting for the lights to go green, the exhilaration of putting a move on a competitor, and the sphincter-contracting realisation that you've gone too fast into a bend.

So it's pleasing to note that such psychological (or should that be physiological?) reactions can be observed during the course of playing TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge.

It's almost entirely due to the game's hugely competent handling model, which has clearly been finely-tuned to deliver particularly convincing experiences, closely relating to the type of 40-odd differing vehicles available.

However, this doesn't mean you'll need to have been racing karts since the age of four, Alonso-style, to stand a chance of victory. The handling here achieves the delicate balance of incorporating sim elements within an accessible arcade frame (as well as dealing with the renowned lack of delicacy in the PSP's analogue nub with aplomb by managing a suitably solid, weighty feel to the steering), making it an approachable proposition for most.

But not all. The ride is still demanding – just try wrestling the tail-happy Vauxhall Monaro around anything that isn't straight – and will consistently send those who like to race without braking straight into the nearest tyre barrier. You'll need dedication, patience and skill to get the most of TRD3 Challenge.

Skill, thankfully, is something you can build up. World Challenge, the game's main mode, is based around a series of tests, which unlock successively until you're allowed to qualify and then enter a championship.

Tests are split across five progressively harder tiers set in the UK, USA, Australasia, Europe and World – with disciplines (DTM, V8 Supercars, NASCAR, British GT, IndyCar and even F1, amongst others), and a considered selection of the 36 real-world circuits available to match.

The tests themselves are typically short and varied, involving activities such as snaking through cone gates, maintaining a certain average speed per lap, getting to the finish line with a damaged car, catching and passing a competitor, lapping a circuit while keeping within the racing line, or successfully completing a pit stop. They are also ranked, and some are addictive enough to keep you trying until you've earned your gold cup (others you'll be happy to have scraped through with bronze).

It's a decent dynamic, not least because the staccato nature of play suits handheld gaming well. That said, the fact that five tiers on offer (and, indeed, the tests within them) unlock progressively can make things feel excessively linear and restrictive.

There's always Free Race instead, which enables you to pick a car and track, though the selection is limited by what you've unlocked in World Challenge. Less affected is Quick Start, which throws you into a championship at random yet occasionally does enable you to sample vehicles you've yet to get familiar with through the main mode.

If you're serious about your racing, though, you'll inevitably soon return to World Challenge. You may breeze past the competition in the first three tiers, but something will soon test you.

Opponent AI, for the most part, is particularly impressive, with rivals deliberately defending their line and taking plenty of speed into and out of corners. This makes putting a successful and classic overtaking move – say, at Laguna Seca's Corkscrew chicane – on a competitor, and particularly the leader on the final lap of a hard-fought race, uncommonly rewarding.

If there are complaints over their behaviour, it's that they're more Montoya than Coulthard when it comes to road manners, thinking nothing of sending you into the scenery as you draw alongside. It can cost you a race, not to mention a championship, which is clearly infuriating.

Still, you could spin it positively and argue it's excellent practice for when you come up against human opponents, either via the generous 12-player ad hoc support or the excellent inclusion of a four-player gamesharing option.

Further gratitude to the development team should focus on the attention to detail present in TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge, both graphically and sonically – the level of involvement is a direct result of these aspects working in symbiosis with the capable handling. True, the costs are loading times (although, brilliantly, restarts are immediate), and framerate, which is never Cadillac-smooth and on occasions when a lot is going on (some of the US races can count 20 competitors) can get as juddery as a learner driver setting off for the first time.

Mostly, however, the sense of speed is well maintained. Combined with the game's other achievements, the result is a thoroughly convincing motorsport experience, though one that may prove too frightening for the casual racing gamer.