Indy 500, one of the Atari 2600's launch titles, is a series of 14 Top-Down View, Player Versus Player or Player Versus the Clock, racing or driving games, based on Atari's earlier arcade games Sprint 2 and Crash 'N Score. Game variations include:
- Two-player racing around a couple of track designs.
- Single-player racing against the clock on the same tracks.
- "Crash n' Score", in which players compete to crash into dots that appear randomly.
- One-player Crash n' Score against the clock.
- Tag, the player who is "it" chases the other one around.
- Ice racing, one or two players on an ice track.
Indy 500 provides examples of:
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: Depending on the variation, the two players are either green and orange, blue and purple, yellow and blue, or yellow and purple.
- Driving Game: It's a top-down 2D auto racing or demolition-derby game.
- In-Vehicle Invulnerability: Your car can crash any number of times without being destroyed.
- No Plot? No Problem!: You just drive around the track, drive into dots, or drive into the other player.
- Player Versus Player: Either you compete with the other player as in real auto racing, or you compete to out-crash them.
- Scoring Points: Crash n' Score and Tag.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The ice races. Your car skids and has to be controlled carefully.
- Timed Mission: One minute for one-player modes.
- Top-Down View: All the game modes are 2D, looking down from above.
- Wrap Around: The barriers are not solid walls; more like dirt or mud. This includes the outer barrier.
