I've thought some about how to go about doing the Car Wars timeline myself for a possible Autoduel campaignat some vague far-off point. Going 50 years ahead from today I would do the following few oddities I think. Not certain and these are just off the top of my head.
- The Oil Dries Up. Increased oil consumption by emerging economies in Asia (primarily China & Inda) along with North America's ever-increasing demands (US, Canada, & a Mexico who had begun to see a great economic boon thanks to things like NAFTA) Simply begin to put too great a strain on limited resources. To further exaserbate the issue, seperatists in Russia start bombing the russian oil fields to weaken the nations economy (one of the most radical groups manages to sieze a three nuclear weapons and actually sets them off over the greatest of russia's oil fields ensuring that they can no longer be used). South American oil reserves are struck at by Drug Lords who have decided to take decisive action against governments that are trying to drive them out of business. Taking a que from the russians, they set about destroying the oil fields as well, or in some cases, when a country is suffiently destabilized, actually seizing control of it for themselves. With most of the damand left squarely on the middle east's oil reserve, the supplies of the lesser countries soon dries up completely, and the oil fields of the more plentiful ones become the battle ground for desperate countries, religious isolationists who wish to drive out western and eastern powers from their lands, and finally the US, EU and China all make moves to try and influence the fate of the oil. Sands would be covered in black and red over all the spilt oil and blood.
The Grain Blight. Just like in the old setting, a strange disease starts wiping out the crops of the major western powers. As the US and EU provided much of the food for the rest of the world, a great famine will sweep across most of the world. Some blame ecoterrorists who were trying to screw with bioiengineered crops. Others say it was a failed experiment of a disease to target the drug crops, and some even claim it was China's attempt to remove the threat of western powers and reduce their oil consumption. The last is only because the first wave of the blight seemed to leave rice undammaged. It is thought that tens, if not hundreds, of millions died from starvation caused by this.
The 30 Minute War. With everyone blaming everyone else for the famines sweeping the world, tempers began to flare. Most said the war was going to happen when the U.N. Security Council was dissolved. Soom followed by a withdrawal of the various world powers from that governing body. Most claimed that it had become nothing more than a soapbox for desots and 3rd world tyrants. The 1st and 2nd world powers could no longer deal with their own problems, much less the disintegrating 3rd world countries. A group of terrorists managed to sieze control of 2 russian missile silos and 1 north korean missile battery. They launched at the US while broadcasting a hacked/cgi image of the russian president blaming the US for all the world's problems. The US autolaunched 2 four missiles in retaliation. and had their bergeonning (sp?) satellite defense system start taking out russian satellites. The russian versian of the SDS auto-retalliated as it was programmed to. Almost a third of all orbiting satellites were obliterrated before the orders were able to be sent to stop the destruction. Before another could be sent out the russian special ops raided the terrorists and broadcast the entire ugly battle on a live feed so that the world would know the truth about the lauch. This bloody skirmish is still one of the highest rated best of clips seen on tv in the present day.
The Wyrm. Terrorists calling themselves the Green Earth Movement (composed largely of spoiled and ill-informed 1st worlded pampered children of wealthy industrialists) decided that their parents tech was to blame for the hell the world was spiraling into. The internet, still alive and well, was the symbol of all that was wrong. The terrorists launched a virus called "The Wyrm" on the day after Thanksgiving. Servers, networks, individual systems, stored information, all started being wiped out. Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express lost all online information and had a core system failure that wiped out most of their records. The Wyrm also destroyed the databases of most credit rating companies and the online accounts for most of the major international trading houses. The world was thrown off the grid.
There you have my slight reinterpretation of what leads to the world of Car Wars. Famine, War, Plague, and Fear. This leads to the Free Oil States, Violence on TV, Fortress Towns, Power Cells, Unemployment. All the horrors that make the world a living hell, but a ripe place for gaming of whatever sort you like.