I could tell you that if Club Drive is considered horrible, then this is a complete udder abomination that is disgusting on too many levels!
Released in late 1994 by Atari for the short-lived Atari Jaguar, Checkered Flag seems to be a 64-bit "reboot" (if you can even call it that) of a 1991 Atari Lynx game of the same name, due to the two games playing rather different from each other. My review will be only covering the Jaguar version, which is actually so terrible and unplayable despite its mixed reception it's in fact a candidate for not only being one of the worst games on the Jaguar, but also one of the worst games ever made.
So let's not waste any more time, start our engines, and prepare for the worst Grand Prix in video game history. Let's review this stuff.
First things first, look at the graphics in the above screenshot. No, really, just look at them. Despite being described as 64 bit, they are too rotten, crude, flat-shaded, polygonal, geometric and abysmally outdated, even for the mid 90s. They're so godawful and beyond weird in fact that they look worse than Stunt Race FX (48 bits less, but a million times more appealing to our vision). Compared to Hard Drivin', which had better graphics and atmosphere, here it's a complete joke as they all look like they were done by an inexperienced 3D modelling amateur. As a result, due to the aforementioned 3D graphics, all the in-game objects and designs are really horrible and ugly like those 3D design projects that would get an F (or worse) at the course. Something tells me that they tried replicating the Lynx game in 3D, which unfortunately cannot translate well in 3D; the objects and designs are so atrocious that they can probably be just about almost comparable to these abominations:
Next, words cannot describe how the ten tracks are, if anything, even worse. They are tedious and uncomfortably dark and monotonous, with practically nothing in the way of scenery, with some looking more like those same aforementioned 3D design projects.
And yes, there are pitstops, but they serve no purpose at all other than to fool you into thinking there are more mechanics herein.
It gets worse when it's revealed that all the races drag on for way too long, tournament mode forces you to drive for 10 laps. Yes, that's right, you heard me, ten laps. This, combined with the monotones of the environment, as well as the next issue, it will make the game very rage inducing.
The AI is so poorly programmed that on certain parts of the track you can actually see the other vehicles halt and wait for you if you're too far behind! That is kind of like cheating which is extremely unacceptable if you ask me! Others barely even do anything than just go around smashing into things every 5 seconds as if they're cheap toy vehicles.
The controls are extremely atrocious and horrendously terrible being programmed disgustingly with a crazy amount of buffering issues to add to the irritation! To say you'll oversteer a lot would be a huge understatement! Every Single Turn will be either an oversteer or an understeer, which will almost always mean crashing into the scenery!
The framerate issues are no better as they can easily be considered the absolute worst in a video game ever. This is due to the fact that there isn't even much onscreen, yet it still lags at a low framerate, which truly shows how incompetently made this game was; also, if there are more things onscreen than usual (which is unlikely to happen much anyway), it will drag down to the point of going below 5 frames a second! Even the music and sounds are no greater, as the sounds are especially hideous they may make you want to mute your speakers or shut them off completely for good.
Almost none of the settings do anything for jack, other than either increasing (or decreasing) the amount of AI cars, make your car look uglier and somehow even worse than the default setting, or slow the game down even further.
And if that wasn't even enough, there is no multiplayer mode at all, which is a basic thing that most racing games at this time (like Daytona USA, for example) actually had! Not even the cover advertises this at all, as it is riddled with incredibly false advertising for nearly everything else as well! Leaving me wondering as to why they failed to provide multiplayer, which is infuriating...
Overall, this was a really dismally poor attempt (if you can even call it that) at a darker and edgier "reboot", but didn't bother incorporating even as much as an excuse plot or explanations of the darker atmosphere compared to the original of any kind & failed so hard that the series never continued onward. It is highly recommended to avoid this shovelware game for your own sanity, as there is really no reason to play it.