NURBURG, Germany — It's a day for celebration for anyone who was ever told that playing video games wouldn't get them anywhere. Nissan and Sony are teaming up to hold a massive contest to find the best Gran Turismo players in the world — and let them try their skills at the wheel of real cars.

All Playstation 3 owners can enter the first stage of the contest online, which is set to run for seven weeks starting June 2. Gamers will enter using their Playstation Network ID on a dedicated Web site. To qualify, they'll have to put up their best lap times in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on the Eiger Nordwand track in a Nissan Fairlady 350Z.

The 20 fastest drivers in each country will receive an invitation to compete face to face in July. After the dust settles on the preliminary competitions, the three quickest racers will be invited to take part in GT Academy at Silverstone, the home of British auto racing. There they'll train on a real track using a real Nissan GT-R, as well as undergo a series of mental and physical tests to prove their mettle as drivers.

The two best trained contestants at the end of the academy have the opportunity to enroll in an intensive four-month training program to earn racing licenses and compete driving a race-spec Nissan 350Z at a 24-hour endurance event in Dubai in January 2009.

Stephane Cottin, Nissan Europe vice president of marketing and strategy, called GT Academy "a first for the motoring industry" and commented: "Never before has a competition of this scale been undertaken to unite the worlds of virtual and real-life racing. GT Academy sets the challenge to see if gamers can re-create their performance behind the wheel of a real racing car and on their journey be amongst the first in Europe to drive the GT-R on track."

What this means to you: It's American Idol for people who live to race