I received a review sample of the Thomas and Friends Great Race Game several months ago. I finally had a chance to test it on a rainy afternoon when a friend and her children visited. Her 3 year-old and her 5 year-old played happily for several hours.

Thomas and Friends Great Race Game teaches counting, sort and color matching. Players earn “coal blocks” by answering questions like “How many red hats are pictured?” My testers loved putting the coal blocks into the train tracks and watching their engine move up the hill. Once the engine gets to the top of the hill, it rolls down the hill and across the finish line.

It doesn’t take more than five minutes to play the Thomas and Friends Great Race Game. Young kids will be entertained for hours, but adults might want to invent some new rules to keep it interesting. We threw in some simple math questions and other trivia like “how many cookies did you eat at lunch today?”

You can buy Thomas and Friends Great Race Game online for $16.95 at Amazon.

• Educational Toy Awards
• Wii MySims Party Game Review
• It’s a Wii-underful World: Mom-Approved Wii Games.