A valiant effort, to be sure.
It almost feels wrong to be reviewing something like Pyongyang Racer. It's a browser driving game developed in a country that is, at least to those in the west, not known for technological advances outside of things designed to kill us. The game, however, which was commissioned by a tourist board, seems to want to dispel those negative feelings outsiders have toward them.
The game is often nicknamed "Propaganda Racer", and in a way, the game is filled with propaganda, but not in the way you may think. After 6 plays I've seen no references to the Kim Dynasty, any mentions of the "Glorious Nation", or any of the other stereotypes one associates with the famously reclusive country.
So with the politics out of the way, how is the game? Sadly, even though you can tell the developers put their heart into it, there is no way this game can be thought of, by any stretch of the imagination, as "good". It more or less is the GameMaker driving game demo in 3D, completely with collecting petrol to keep driving, and to stay out of the way of traffic. The main difference between the two, however, is that the roads of P'yŏngyang are so sparsely populated that it's almost a ghost town - and the cars don't even move. Coupled with the early Saturn-era graphics, the game feels so very slow-paced and dull.
If the player happens to be dumb or unlucky enough to crash into another vehicle, he or she is admonished by a pretty traffic cop. She is probably the best part of the game, popping up to offer such words of wisdom as "Don't stare at me, I'm on duty." If the officer has to get after you three times for vehicular collision, though, the game's over.
Pyongyang Racer also has a collectable aspect, in that 11 postcards about North Korean landmarks are scattered across the road. I was never ever able to get more than 2 on any given playthrough, however, because the draw distance is so terrible that I couldn't see them until it was too late, or they were hiding on the other side of a car.
I'd say Pyongyang Racer is a noble attempt at trying to make North Korea seem like less of a hellhole than its opposition believes it to be, but with a program that is so rife with things for the snarky masses of the internet to poke fun at, I'm not at all convinced that it succeeded.