Haha, and you were trying to do another skill with the triangle button that ended up giving you what the X button gives. It makes a mess of the whole thing.
The main issue is that I have a pretty tight schedule which makes it very difficult to give all games a try. I had to go with my favorite genres to make life easier for me.
I actually didn't get to play NASCAR Thunder '02 and from what you just explained, it's pretty a hard one to swallow if it's that hard to control cars in the game. Let me even look for its trailer if it's possible to get it.
Seriously - It's why I don't really appreciate the so called chosen one at first because it seems they are designed to have an edge which even wouldn't let you explore your skills properly.