# Racetrack — drive a car on squared paper

- From: Racetrack, a pencil-and-paper racing game
- Players: 2–4 players
- Time: 10–15 min
- Made by: Unknown, known by the 1960s; rules published by Martin Gardner in 1973

Made with boardgameBuilder 0.14.4. To design from it, open boardgameBuilder and choose Open game: its blocks go on the canvas, and the feelings are left for you to pick.

Each car keeps its speed from one move to the next and can change it by only one square at a time. Taking a bend means braking early. It is the physics of a racing car in a few lines of rule.

## What it shows a designer

One rule about momentum makes every move depend on the last. It shows how a simple physical constraint creates planning, risk and a track that the players draw themselves.

## What you need

- squared paper
- a pen in a different colour for each player

## How to play

1. **Draw the track.** Draw a closed track on squared paper, a few squares wide, with a start line and a finish line.
2. **Start.** Each car starts on a grid point on the start line. Your first move is one square in any direction, or none.
3. **Move.** Each move repeats your last move, across and up, then changes either part by at most one square. Mark the new point and draw the line to it.
4. **Crash.** If your line leaves the track, or ends on another car's point, you are out.
5. **Win.** The first car across the finish line wins. Cars that cross on the same turn share the win.

## After playing, talk about

- When did you have to start braking for a bend?
- Did anyone crash by going too fast? Could they have seen it coming?
- How would you draw the track to make the race closer?

## Where the rules are written down

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racetrack_(game)
- https://www.neeldhara.com/courses/2024/01-mg/07/bookchapter-07.pdf

## Its blocks

- Core mechanic: drawing the map
- Victory condition: race to finish
- Player interaction: indirect via board
- Chance or skill: mostly skill
- Information visibility: full information
- Timing: take turns

## Saved state

boardgameBuilder reads this part back when the file is opened.

```json
{"mechanics": {"core-mechanic": ["drawing-the-map"], "victory-condition": "race-to-finish", "player-interaction": "indirect-via-board", "chance-skill": "mostly-skill", "information": "full-information", "timing": ["take-turns"]}, "chosenFeelings": [], "previousMechanics": {}, "previousFeelings": [], "turnNumber": 0, "locked": false, "turnHistory": [], "answers": {}, "tests": {}}
```