Some Knowledge

Topps candy company is running a sweepstakes.  There is a racing game on the Topps website that you have to register for.  Once you register, you can play one of five racing games.  When you finish the game you are taken to a page where you can enter the sweepstakes.  You can put in five entries to the sweepstakes per day.  At the end of the promotion period, on about July 15, Topps will hold a random drawing from all the sweepstakes entries for all the games that were played.

The top prize is a trip to the Bank of America 500 Race in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Other prizes include Speed Racer games for the Nintendo Wii, T-shirts, or boxes of candy.  So, the general story is you play a game and then get to enter a random drawing for prizes.  The game requires a plugin that has to be downloaded.  From videos on Youtube, this game looks a lot like the HotWheels Racer game for the old PS-1.  You drive Speed Racer’s car around various tracks picking up power-ups that look like Topps candy and do spins in the air when you perform jumps at various parts of the tracks.

I think it’s cool that there’s a game where you can race and try to win a prize.  I think it would be better if they had everyone race against each other and let the winner of all the races win the prize.  Since they are not taking money for entering this drawing it’s technically not gambling.  I don’t know whether you race against other players or just computer-generated opponents.  It looks kind of fun, but I have better driving games and am not really interested in the prizes.  If you are between 6 and 12 years old and want to play, you will need your parents permission.