Games are the gifts that keep on giving…at least throughout the rest of the day when everyone else is bored with their drills and those blankets with sleeves and are now looking for what movies to see. And you may not know it, but there were plenty of great Mac games released this year. We’ve rounded up some of the best here so you can easily bring the joy of wanton violence to your loved ones this holiday season.

Understand, first of all, that I’m not the least bit interested in racing, but I do like a good Macintosh game, and ToCA offers enough variety to keep even a guy like me coming back for more. I don’t know what it is about the Europeans that they can make racing seem so much more interesting than it can ever be here in America. I suppose next they’re going to tell me that the popularity of soccer is justified if it’s being played anywhere outside of the U.S.?

The Macintosh is not a gaming machine. I understand that. I’ve been fighting the good fight for over a decade now, but it’s a losing battle. Mac users will never get as many games as PC owners, we’ll never see the innovation, and simultaneous releases continue to elude us even today.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t great games to be played. With the right software and hardware, it’s pretty easy to fool your Macintosh into thinking it’s an Xbox 360, if even for a little while. So, if you know a Mac gamer in need of some gifts this Christmas season, or if you’re getting a new Mac and want to see what it can do, here are a couple of suggestions to get you started (provided your system can handle them).

In their never ending pursuit to guarantee that every game involving wheels should find its way to the Macintosh (those Brits do love themselves some racing), Feral Interactive has announced they will be bringing ToCA Race Driver 3 to our platform. The worldwide release of the exciting, wheel-to-wheel, single-player and multiplayer racing game developed by Codemasters is set for October 24th.

With 70 licensed cars and 80 licensed tracks, ToCA Race Driver 3 is the racing game for the Mac and offers the greatest range of motorsports of any game; GT, Off Road, Touring Cars, Classics, Open Wheel, Rally and Oval are just a few of the more than 35 types of racing featured. And the quality is just as impressive as the quantity with real-world physics giving players an authentic handling experience for each individual car.

With its online, multi-player capability, ToCA Race Driver 3 for Mac delivers an added dimension of live competition with other drivers across the globe.