Do racing games need a story? Need For Speed: The Run proved that story modes in racing games are actually kind of lame. All you need is some fast cars and great track design to make a great racing game. Need for Speed Rivals looked like it would be ditching the kind of stories that result in stuff like the Need for Speed movie, but the latest trailer for the title leaves one skeptical.

In a new Need for Speed Rivals trailer released today, the narrator lays it on thick as we’re introduced to a world where the police are under investigation for using excessive force to bring down street racers. The police aren’t going to let these racers embarrass them, however, and are now pursuing them with extreme prejudice. The trailer than ends with a melodramatic one-liner about how the cops were once rivals, but now they’re enemies.

It’s really silly set up, but we can only hope that it doesn’t get in the way of the game. After all, racing games never benefit from a story mode. All we need to know is that there are cops and racers, and that these two sects of cars will occasionally butt heads.

In the end, we can only hope that we end up with a game that’s like a cross between Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Anything else, and things might get messy.

Need for Speed Rivals will launch November 19 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The PS4 and Xbox One versions will launch three days later on November 22.

[Image: EaGamesAus/YouTube]