I was just reading an excellent interview with Tim Willits on EuroGamer and it gave me an idea to integrate the "driving element" inside the game.

Basically, I know that only 2 driving missions are required to finish Rage but I also hope that id also made cars have a bigger impact on the game besides these 2 races and using it traverse the Wasteland. An idea popped in my mind where it would be awesome to have like a Valley of Death (if you will) a place where only a heavily rigged up Buggy could have any chance of survival. This would of course add more weight and motivation to those gamers who want to focus more on the RPG/Upgrade and try to get every single enhancement for their buggy. This arc would of course be a side quest and help appeal to some of the RPG type of players while not interfering with the Soul of the game which is the FPS experience.

Some obstacles in this Valley of Death would be towers, sentries, mines, other buggies maybe even create a scenario where there is this one "Death Rider" guy who has the baddest car and reputation in the Wasteland--that even if you pass the sentries, towers and mines you *Never* get passed the "Death Rider". Mission could also have a payoff at the end if you were to complete it whether it's a new ammo or reputation when speaking with the NPCs after you have defeated the "Death Rider". Obviously, I have no idea what is in Rage currently for driving, I hope it integrates more into the Wasteland than just getting from point A to point B and letting you do more than shoot the occasional tower or random bandits and their buggies. Either way i'm not buying the game because of the driving, but i'm glad that mechanic is there and that could be fleshed out or complimented with any upcming DLC, mods or even the possible sequel.

10 more days, can't wait!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-return-of-id-software?page=1