Usually it’s very simple to decipher which side of the fence a racing title will fall on, but GRID is a tough game to label as it combines ultra-realistic and fantastical elements—and it pulls it off with flying colors. It’s almost like a racing game angle on Newton’s Third Law: for every arcade element in GRID, there is an opposite and equal realistic element.

GRID’s largest realistic measure deals with bending your fender (and frame, and axis, and hood, and…). Unlike many racing games, this one doesn’t shy back from causing you to lose races from just a single crash. The damage is authentic, and impacted by your speed and what you hit. Crash big enough and your car can suffer so much damage that you might find it impossible to finish the race—let alone win it.

Even then, the surreal is mixed in. It’s not uncommon for your car to go flying after a crash, rocketing to and fro through the air like some twisted metal bumblebee. It’s a interesting feel when you’re both fearing crashes for the damage they can do to you, but also secretly desiring them to see how your car and its frame hold up this time.

With crashing being a frequent occurrence, it’s a good thing the developers tossed in the new “flashback” feature. Using flashback, you essentially reverse time; if you’ve played Prince of Persia, Braid, or any other number of time-manipulating games you’ll feel right at home with it. To keep you from abusing it, you’re only given a set amount of flashbacks to use on any given course, dependent on your level of difficulty, with five being the most possible.

Like many racing games, the meat and potatoes of GRID is going to be the career single player mode. Obviously winning races begets money, begets new cars, begets more wins. However, a lot of your money doesn’t come specifically from winning races—but from gaining sponsors.