Final Lap (Rev E) — stories left

The course in the 1st game is Suzuka Circuit only, but in the sequel Final Lap 2 (1990) it became possible to choose 1 of 4 courses by a majority vote of the players before the game starts.

In the "2nd Gamest Grand Prize" feature (1987) of the game magazine Gamest, it took 10th place in the Grand Prize by reader vote, and also took 5th place among the hit games of the year.

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu,the game scored a total of 26 out of 40, In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Family Computer Magazine, it scored 19.58 out of 30, as shown below.

In the "Cross Review" of the game magazine Famitsu it received scores of 8, 7, 8, and 7, for a total of 30 out of 40, earning a place in the Silver Hall of Fame. Gekkan PC Engine gave scores of 90, 90, 90, 85, and 90, for an average of 89. Marukatsu PC Engine gave 8, 7, 8, and 8, for a total of 31 out of 40. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by PC Engine FAN its rating was 23.04 out of 30, as shown below.

This score also placed it 89th among all PC Engine titles (485 titles in total, as of 1993).

It was the first game to run on Namco's then-new System 2 hardware and is a direct successor to Namco's Pole Position (1982) and Pole Position II (1983).

Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games called it "a first class racing sim" that is "tremendously addictive" especially in multiplayer mode and a "definitive must" for all racing drivers.

Development first went ahead without the "rubber band", but in test play the situation was that "people not used to racing games were hopeless", so the feature was hurriedly added in order to do something about that.

Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games called it "a first class racing sim" that is "tremendously addictive" especially in multiplayer mode and a "definitive must" for all racing drivers.