For anyone who liked to jump off ramps on their bike as a kid, this game might let you relive some of that excitement - without the fear of broken bones. You really get a sense of the scale of this game when you enter the Stunt Quarry - a vast, uncluttered stretch of terrain with lots of ravines, mounds, and hills from which to catch serious air and perform spectacular jumps to your childish heart's content.

You can also enter a variety of races in which handling and speed are more important than showing off (but the crowds love it). There are Baja Races, Stunt Quarries, National Races, and the Supercross.

Number Five: Moto Racer 2
Price: $49.95
Platform: Windows 95 CD-ROM
Contact: Electronic Arts, (415) 571-7171, www.ea.com

As one of five motorcycle racing games coming out this year, Moto Racer 2 builds on the popularity of its predecessor with better graphics, more detailed environments, and a new track editor that lets you create your own circuits.

As in the first game, Moto Racer 2 provides both high-powered street bike and dirt bike racing in one arcade-style game. After you become proficient at riding both kinds of bikes, you can start a season, during which you'll be required to compete on both kinds of tracks. Choose a bike based on a combination of four attributes: top speed, handling, braking, and acceleration. Then try to keep up with the leaders on a high-speed road course or fly through the air on the hilly dirt track. It's fun and challenging to race on both, and Moto Racer 2 is the only game that lets you do it.

More Racing Games
Many more racing games are coming down the pike in the next year. Here are just a few of them.

Viper Racing from Sierra Sports brings the same type of racing game to the PC as the PlayStation's Grand Tourismo. Start your career as an amateur driver with no funds and win races for money to buy upgrades for your car. Although Viper Racing is a full simulation, different difficulty levels make it accessible for anyone.

Virgin Interactive Entertainment gets into the driving game market this year with Professional Sports Car Racing, based on the Professional Sports Car Racing league that Virgin itself sponsors. The cars in this league are largely based on production cars from Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Volvo, and several others. They might not be as fast as a Formula One car, but they are certainly easier to handle.

Accolade's Test Drive 5 is the latest iteration of the popular arcade racing game, with as much and even more to offer than a lot of other racing games: more cars, more tracks, and more music tracks. The cars in TD5 are varied and include exotic, contemporary sports cars as well as muscle cars of old.