Mad Max.

I got it for free on PSN and cant believe how much fun it is. You drive "The Magnus Opus" against other drivers, desert strongholds and random encounters. Huge world to explore, upgrade your car into a speed demon or a tank.

Its alot of fun and a game I always go back to. No clue why it was never popular.

Thoughts about Quarantine is what probably sparked this craving, as these where the only FPS I enjoyed in that era. I saw a modern clone on Steam and frankly I'm waiting only to see if it comes to GoG, although I don't have too high hopes about the overall quality, if only because these games certainly aged a lot.

I ignored Dethkarz before as 3D games from the last century are for me purely a nostalgia trip at most, but actually now that I payed to it more attention, the graphics look amazing for 1998 and I might be able to enjoy it.

I follow Dark Future out of sentiment (I did play the table top once) and soft spot for everything mad-maxy, but it's totally a different type of game. Might pull the plug one day if it's on sale, but now I wanted a bit off a Zen experience. Wow, by a glance you seemed to nail it, at least from the description, and it doesn't look half-bad for a genre which must look bleak by definition.

Now, I must say that even if not exactly what I was looking for, from the videos GRIP looks super fun.

So thanks all, will try something among these.

WipeOut Omega Collection or really any WipeOut game.
Deathtrack Resurrection.
Carmageddon Max Damage or any Carmageddon game (first two).
Rollcage 1 and 2.
GRIP.
Mario Kart.
Sonic Riders.

Games with vehicular combat:

Hard Truck Apocalypse.
Bandits: Phoenix Rising.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't state it explicitly but I thought it showed from the description - I have and like Mad Max, one of very few games I actually replayed. This time however I was in need of something small, to play in short stretches, without a commitement and seriousness of RPGs (at least how I play them).