[kjamma4]

Personally, I thought the background of Car Wars was unbelievable anyway. If a grain blight/nuclear war took place, arming regular vehicles, especially for the purpose of entertainment, would be the last thing on survivors' minds.

I was never too concerned about the background of the Car Wars universe as I treated it as a board game - armed vehicles in an arena needed little justification. The whole backstory was irrelevant.

However, in this current day of reality television, it might be plausible to envision a society where death sports become acceptable. Armed vehicles start out in the arena and then, with some sort of "disaster which topples society", they progress out into the "real world."

I would be just as happy with the backstory being that Car Wars is just a futuristic interactive video game played in a "battle pod" that simulates real world combat.