I played the Mattel Auto Race game for hours on end when it first came to our local radio electronics stores.
No offense (offence?), but Dave got the game's goal wrong.
The player's goal is to pass as many cars as possible in the 99 second time limit.
By not hitting other cars, the player's car moves forward until it gets to the top of the "screen".
Then, the next lap occurs, with the other cars coming faster and faster.
The player is rewarded with great fanfare upon success.
I didn't know it back then, but according to Wikipedia, the game that Dave has is considered rare in working condition...potentially the first handheld, all-digital electronic game.
This game is described in more detail there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_RaceOh, to be young again.