Desert Race holds the possible distinction of being the first (and only?) animated driving game programmed entirely as a DOS batch file. This implies all the expected limitations - system commands only, no real graphics/hardware access, and the absence of most useful programming constructs. Nevertheless, it manages to implement a top-down car race in ASCII graphics, albeit without real-time continuous play (the game waits for a keypress before advancing to the next frame).

There's even a story, in which you set forth on a brutal race for survival in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-style scenario. The game takes place at night, and so only a section of the road is visible, fading to black at the edges, your only controls are moving left and right to switch lanes, trying to avoid incoming cars as they emerge from the darkness. Colliding with a car (or with the edge of the road) will permanently extinguish your road rage.