Disney Interactive has released a new trailer for Split/Second: Velocity, the upcoming arcade racer from Black Rock Studios. The action takes place on a fictional game show and as the one minute clip ably demonstrates, winning requires a great deal more than speed. By triggering explosions at strategic junctures, drivers can cause trackside structures to collapse onto their opponents.

Split/Second is just the latest game to take the reality television concept to its logical extreme. William’s classic twin-stick shooter Smash T.V. was a pioneer in this regard, while Capcom’s forthcoming Dead Rising 2 is set to become one of the more brutal examples of the subgenre. Given that it has been assigned a rating of PG in Australia, we’re unlikely to witness anything overly grisly in Split/Second. Apparently driving your vehicle through into an avalanche of steel and cement isn’t as dangerous as it looks.

A demo for Split/Second was released to Xbox Live earlier this week, with the PlayStation Network to receive the same content in the second week of May. Hopefully this is merely a quirk of scheduling and not an indication that we’re now to be subjected to timed exclusives of demos.

Split/Second is due for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on Thursday 20 May 2010.