Now this is more like it. At long, long last we have a console racing game that actually makes you drive ‘realistically’ – as realistically as a video game can. Why is that? Simple: damage.

Here’s what happened on the first corner of the first lap of our first race in GRiD.

Step 1: accelerate hard off the starting line.

Step 2: approach corner.

Step 3: turn (aiming to use our impact with another car to slow us down).

Step 4: destroy front end of car, spin out, hit wall with damage indicators lighting up red, orange and yellow.

GRiD isn’t the first game to implement a progressive damage system (as you smash and barge your way around the track, various bits of your car can absorb up to three levels of damage, with performance downgraded at each stage), but by combining it with a very well thought-out and easy-to-use rewind system, it’s the first game that will see you racing hard all the way through a race, even after a bad crash, rather than just hitting the restart button.

The ‘Flashback’ system, as it’s called,  is simple; if you have a really bad prang, you can rewind the last few seconds of racing and pick a time before you destroyed your car, hit the button and blam! You’re back on the track, pre-prang.

Interestingly, the rewind also resets all the other cars around you, so if an opponent spun out while you were destroying your car, it will also get a chance to avoid disaster. Neat.

You’ll be using the system a lot, especially early on. The game offers driving aids (traction control, braking assist etc) to help ease you into the action, but there are no on-track indicators to suggest braking points and racing lines, so you’ll be – literally – feeling your way around until it all begins to ‘click.’

And click, it will. One of the great things about the damage modelling, Flashback, excellent opponent A.I (which sees CPU-controlled cars spinning out, missing corners and making other mistakes) and responsive controls is that before long, you’ll be switching the driving aids off and driving like a pro. Every class of vehicle feels different and the controls are responsive to small inputs and adjustments without being twitchy and unmanageable.

But GRiD offers more than this. In addition to a superlative driving experience, it also offers a well-structured campaign mode, which sees you starting out as a rookie driver-for-hire and ending up as a race team owner/manager, juggling sponsors, hiring drivers and trading cars.

Like its predecessors from Codemasters (the V8 Supercars games), GRiD includes a wide range of racing disciplines spread across three territories (America, Europe and Japan), with the appropriate cars. So you’ll power through the streets of Detroit in a classic American muscle car – all mushy handling and massive motor; scream around Le Mans in a slice of Euro exotica worth millions; and slip and slide down the side of a Japanese mountain in the middle of the night, riding your highly-tuned hot-rod along the razor’s edge, drifting and fighting the wet road through every corner.

Regrettably there are no V8 Supercars or DTMs in this iteration of the series. Regardless of whether or not they were ever intended to be in this release – which, with its drifting and muscle cars, targets different territory – we can still see a lot of Aussie fans being disappointed.

Still, all three regions are available online, with plenty of events on offer, a well-configured lobby system, matchmaking, and support for up to 12 players in a race. If you want to upload your lap times to the leaderboards you’ll have to race without Flashback, but then again if you’ve used Flashback, your lap probably wasn’t up to international leaderboard standards, was it?

Every discipline has its own distinct feel, its own set of vehicles and its own set of skills to be mastered. The Japanese drift events are reminiscent of PGR’s Kudos challenges; there’s an in-game Le Mans event that runs through a full day-night cycle; circuit races require smooth lines and careful throttle control; and the muscle events (a crowd favourite) are all roar and bluster, point-and-squirt races through the guts of America’s biggest cities. And there’s more. Much more. Demolition derbys. F1000 races. Togue races. Freestyle and Drift GP events. Touring cars. Not so much that you lose track of it all, but definitely enough to keep your interest up and your skills sharp.

As you complete events you not only accumulate cash, you also increase your reputation. In a nice touch, you can wager on your rep. by taking fewer Flashbacks with you into a race. Building your reputation opens more events and also starts to bring in sponsors, which also come with varying degrees of risk and reward; some sponsors, for example, will offer you more money, but only pay for podium finishes.

It’s not a racing-team simulator, nor is it meant to be, but it adds a welcome extra dimension to proceedings and gives you some control over how, when and where you race. You can trade vehicles but there’s no customisation beyond paint jobs.

This is a strange omission and will inevitably disappoint some, but for those of us who just like to race and aren’t interested in adjusting camber angles and gearbox ratios, it’s no big deal. Yet it’s of a piece with the game’s overall philosophy, as is the relatively small number of unique cars on offer (45 in all). GRID is a game about racing, not a game about cars.

The campaign structure, the selection of events and vehicles, even the damage modelling and Flashback systems are all of a piece, and all intended to achieve one goal – to keep you on the racetrack, pedal to the metal, chasing the win. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?