SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Sony’s PlayStation 3 is off to the races with a teaser installment of its iconic “Gran Turismo” franchise, starting this year’s high-octane video game lineup with a wave of the checkered flag.

“Gran Turismo 5 Prologue,” which rumbled onto store shelves last week, gives PS3 owners a taste of what is in store when the full version of the highly anticipated driving simulator comes out in 2009.

When it comes to racing games, Microsoft’s rival Xbox 360 system has left the PS3 in the dust with exclusive titles such as “Project Gotham Racing 4” and the “Gran Turismo”-inspired “Forza Motorsport 2.”

“There are very, very few brands — a handful or so — that are directly responsible for moving hardware in volume over a 12-month period, and ‘Gran Turismo’ has without doubt been that kind of title for PlayStation,” Scott Steinberg, vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview.

“‘Prologue’ really opens up the spring for us.”

Indeed, the game finally gets some rubber on the road for Sony, putting fans behind the wheels of more than 70 sweet rides, from a Ferrari F430 to the Nissan Skyline GT-R, all lovingly rendered in glorious high-definition.

Polyphony Digital, the Sony game studio behind the series, boasts that a single headlight in the new game packs as much graphical detail as an entire car in “Gran Turismo 4,” which debuted on the PlayStation 2 in the final days of 2004.

“Our franchise has always been about pushing the hardware limits and concentrating on beauty and reality, so there’s a real attention to detail and craftsmanship,” said Taku Imasaki, the U.S. senior producer on the game.

The game also lets up to 16 people race against each other online, though an early complaint is that your opponents are chosen at random with no way to find specific friends.

“Prologue” also leaves out the full game’s tuner aspect that turns fans into virtual grease monkeys by letting them trick out their rides with performance parts and visual upgrades.

But it does include a new “Gran Turismo TV” feature, which offers an intriguing glimpse into how the game could transform into a platform for all kinds of automotive content, from news and video of actual races to showcasing new car models.

Sony plans to add more features and pipe a steady stream of video content into “Prologue” in hopes that gamers’ interest will be redlining by the time the full game is released.

“Our goal is to become another medium for car companies, like magazines and TVs. We’re the perfect game for that and ideally we could become the MySpace or Facebook for auto enthusiasts,” Imasaki said.

But “GT5 Prologue” occupies a gray area. It is more than a demo, but less than a full game. The price is a welcome discount to the $60 most major releases command, yet high enough to give casual buyers pause.

“Is it a reason to get a PlayStation? Probably not, but it really depends on how excited you get about racing games,” said Garnett Lee, executive editor of previews for the 1UP Network, a popular gaming news site.

“It’s got some meaty content to it, definitely something to tide you over until the full game,” Lee said. “It’s a milestone to show how far they’ve come.”