The vamos application lets you experience the simulation first hand. Its main purpose is to be a test bed for the libraries. It is not intended to be a polished end-user application. However, you can drive on a number of tracks and try to beat your best time. Or you can just have fun driving on, and over, the ragged edge.
When you start the application you will be looking out over the hood of your car, down the front straight of a simple, fictitious circuit. Give the car a little gas and shift into first by pressing and releasing the first joystick button. The clutch is engaged gradually, so you will need to increase the throttle to keep the engine revs up. If you stall, shift back to neutral (second button) and press the <s> key to restart the engine. See Controls.
Once you get going you will need to shift into second. When you press the button to shift, the clutch is disengaged. It is re-engaged when you release the button. You will need to back off the throttle when the clutch is disengaged in order to make your shifts smooth. As with shifting to first gear, the clutch is engaged gradually, although much more quickly.
The first turn on the circuit is a sharp left-hander at the top of a hill. This is a good place to practice sliding the car through a turn. You will probably hear the tires slide as you enter the turn. Don't worry, the tires actually have more grip when they're sliding a little. However, you do lose some directional stability. So you point the nose a little toward the center of the turn and use the throttle to hold the car in the turn. If you slide the car more than a little, you will lose grip and probably find yourself in the barriers.
When driving on the edge, the throttle and brake do as much as the steering wheel to control the trajectory of the car. In general, accelerating tends to straighten out the car and braking tends to turn the car more. To demonstrate this, try backing off the throttle midway through a turn. You'll find that the back end steps out a little causing the car to turn in.
To recap, you will slide a little sideways through the turns, steering with the brake and throttle. You will also be trying to take a perfect racing line, braking as late as possible and accelerating as early as possible. Just remember that the <r> key puts you back on the road, pointed in the right direction. See Controls.