My day behind the wheel of the CODA was spent mostly on city streets around Los Angeles, with a fun detour into a downtown section of the Los Angeles River, a scene reminiscent of the drag races in the movie Grease.

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Infineon Raceway, which spans 1, 600 acres in Sonoma County, attracts hundreds of thousands of fans a year to major races from NASCAR and IndyCar to Drag Racing and the American Motorcycle Association (AMA)series.

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Peter Moore, president of EA Sports, part of Electronic Arts, a games company, says that some gamers like to recreate what they see during live NASCAR races in video games, using online information about speed, drag, tyre pressure and so forth to recreate, in a virtual world, the real-life action.

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There are other races to watch here, but the Napps built their reputation over 48 years on drag racing: the thunderous rush of nitromethane-fueled, 10, 000-horsepower, top-fuel dragsters and funny cars tearing down a paved strip at more than 300 miles an hour.

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