Continental Circus was released in 1989 by Virgin Mastertronic. It was a straightforward arcade racing game where the action was viewed from just behind the player's bright yellow Formula One style vehicle.
It was very popular at the time because of it's sense of speed and nicely drawn sprites, but essentially did not add anything spectacular to the genre.
The title of the game was orginally intended to be 'Continental Circuit' - which makes far more sense in the motor-racing context - but at some stage in devlopment it was misheard or misread and it became 'Continental Circus', a name which the producers liked and chose to stick with.