NASCAR dons Mario Kart costume

EA has decided NASCAR racing will be more Wii-friendly in a cutesy Kart-racing style, a bit like that other quite popular game. And so NASCAR Kart Racing has been born, with a February release date over the water to the west.

In NKR, you can take the wheel as a noted NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and roar around unlikely landscapes, such as rocky cliffs with falling boulders, deserts and junkyards. Official NASCAR circuits will make the cut, too.

There are 10 original animated characters to pick from, and each has different attributes that affect performance.

Defeating rivals and challenges on tracks is the aim of the single-player game, but there's split-screen multiplayer for four people so mum and dad and dog and cat can get involved.

We've a video of NASCAR Kart Racing over on Eurogamer TV, plus a gallery peppered with the first, slightly bland, shots.