Desert Race

Desert Race holds the possible distinction of being the first (and only?) animated driving game programmed entirely as a DOS batch file. This implies all the expected limitations - system commands only, no real graphics/hardware access, and the absence of most useful programming constructs. Nevertheless, it manages to implement a top-down car race in ASCII graphics, albeit without real-time continuous play (the game waits for a keypress before advancing to the next frame).

There's even a story, in which you set forth on a brutal race for survival in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-style scenario. The game takes place at night, and so only a section of the road is visible, fading to black at the edges; your only controls are moving left and right to switch lanes, trying to avoid incoming cars as they emerge from the darkness. Colliding with a car (or with the edge of the road) will permanently extinguish your road rage.