For the first time ever, Gran Turismo features NASCAR. Image courtesy Gran Turismo.

Video-game speed freaks, rejoice! The long awaited, delayed, rescheduled, and delayed again release of Gran Turismo 5 is finally here and will be in stores on November 24th! You can officially plan to skip the Lions game after Thanksgiving dinner because you and your Playstation 3 have a date. This edition of Gran Turismo has been plagued by release date problems, but from the previews it appears to have been worth the wait. The realism of interior quality, tire smoke, and even high and low beam headlights on cars  is definitely a step up over any previous GT game.

Gran Turismo features the best cars of all; muscle cars!

Muscle car fans will not be disappointed as Camaros, Cougars, Chargers, and Challengers are all in the mix! Also, for the first time ever Gran Turismo now features NASCAR. Most of your favorite drivers are there including Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson who just won his 5th consecutive Sprint Cup Championship.  If NASCAR is not your thing, not to worry, as there are plenty of other series to play with including road racing, rally, drift, and even karting. The game itself features 1000 different cars to drive, 200 of which are called “Premium” cars.  These cars offer extensive detail over the other 800 cars that are carry-overs from previous Gran Turismo games.

Gran Turismo 5 is strictly available for the Playstation 3 at this point, so if you don’t have one yet you’ll need one to play the game. If that’s too tall an order for Thanksgiving, not to worry. Christmas is just around the corner and word has is that Santa has a weakness for fast sleds, especially red ones. Just put GT5 on your Christmas list and let Santa know that you too need to get your speed freak on!