From GTPlanet Game Guides

In the beginning there was Car. Car was lonely, so it created Driver. But Driver wasn't old enough to drive Car. Or, in some cases, Driver had a suspended Car-Driving license, or Driver didn't feel the need to take unnecessary risks with Car, because Driver thought it would be unfair for other Cars or Drivers to get hurt.

Driver spoke to Polyphony Digital, who spoke with Sony, who in turn, needed a Car Driving game to boost sales in their upstart video game market. Polyphony Digital (from here on known as PD) created an Ultimate Car Driving game out of the rib of Pole Position, two chicken bones from Hard Drivin', and a side of hot sauce from Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP. Thus, Gran Turismo was created in 1997. Later, after the quarterly reports were released, Sony saw that this was good.

Gran Turismo was released to the Japanese market in 1997, and was expected to be just a cult-favorite with gearheads; the intention was a video game for people who liked and admired cars and racing them head-to-head. But something else happened: Gamers who normally didn't care about how fast their parent's Toyota Chaser was, were suddenly interested in cars and racing. GT had 170+ cars to play with; you could tune every one of them in some way or another. Most of them could have power upgrades, turning a Honda Civic into something that would beat up on a Nissan Skyline GT-R and take its lunch money.

With the success in the Japanese market, Sony tested it on the Americans. And, it too was a success, except the market also ate the game up in serious demand. The trouble was, hardly anybody in America (except for a handful of people) had ever heard of or even seen a Skyline, TVR, or a Demio before. Not that it mattered; the game was a hit. Even if the Cars didn't look damaged when they crashed into things.

Gran Turismo spread to Europe, and eventually became a Greatest Hit. Or turned Platinum. Or something like that. Looking back now, it's almost a mystery how a game that had 9 fake circuits (but fun circuits nonetheless), and "only" 170 cars (about 5-10 times more than most racing games of the time), made you take tests and frustrated the heck out of people at times...was such a success, spawning many sequels, web sites, attention from the Car press.

Everyone's a Driver now.

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