NASCAR driver explains his car-destroying Hail Mary: "I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube"

NASCAR driver Ross Chastain qualified for the motorsport's championship race with a risky, final lap move inspired by a 2005 GameCube game.

Coming into the final laps of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville, Chastain was ten places behind the lead. This was the penultimate race of the NASCAR season, and Chastain needed much better position to qualify for next week's final championship race.

So, in the final lap, Chastain did what can only be described as a 'galaxy brain' racing maneuver. He put his car against the wall and slammed the accelerator on the final lap. He gained five places in the final turn, set a track speed record, and got the finish he needed to advance to the finals.

The announcers immediately called it a "video game move," and in a post-race interview, Chastain was even more specific, citing an old racing game he played with his brother as a kid. "I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with Chad growing up, and you could get away with it. I never knew if it would actually work. I did that when I was eight years old."

As his competitors and their teams reacted to the maneuver, one described the effort as "straight video games." 

That game is, more specifically, NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, released on GameCube September 4, 2004, shortly after its PS2 and Xbox counterparts. As a fun note for video game collectors, over a dozen copies of the game have sold on eBay in the few days since Chastain's move - normally it takes a couple of months for that many copies to sell through.

Chastain's maneuver is being celebrated as one of the most notable events in NASCAR history, even as motorsport writers are penning thinkpieces about whether the move should be banned and how the physics of it worked in the first place.

If you're wondering why people don't normally try things like this in races, you might want to take a look at the smoke pouring out of Chastain's car at the race's conclusion. It's dangerous - both to yourself and potentially to your fellow racers - and it normally only happens in video games where threats of damage and injury are much less dreadful than they are in real life.

Check out all the NASCAR 2005 cheats if you're curious what's rattling around in the stores of GamesRadar+ history - or check out our guide to the best racing games if you're looking for something more modern.