The engines start roaring, and the beads of sweat start forming on your forehead. You grip the wheel more tightly with breathless anticipation - wrong move, buddy. Relax. Take a deep breath. Take in the road. Take in the competition. These are the last ten seconds of the countdown before all of that becomes a blur, and the only thing you have to worry about now are the road ahead of you, the cars around you, and first place.

Tomorrow*, Electronic Arts puts the pedal to the metal with Need for Speed: Carbon rolling into stores for the Xbox 360 and the PC, with the PS3 and Wii versions punching the nitrous on their respective launch days this November. Starting tomorrow, the flag goes down and the rubber heats up. But today? You racers can take that deep breath. Look back to see if you've missed anything in our coverage.

And enjoy this last** pre-release, pure gameplay trailer of Carbon from EA and GameVideos. Before the flag goes down, the tires heat up, and the only thing you have to worry about is first place.

* = as advertised by the trailer. Weird that GameVideos would list its release date as "December 1st."
** = for the PC and Xbox 360, anyway. Any chance for PS3 and Wii-version trailers?