torcs segfaults on startup

Binary package hint: torcs

In Ubuntu 8.10 (although it also happened in 8.04.1), when I try to launch torcs (the racing car game), I get the following error message:

josh@josh-laptop:~$ torcs
Visual Properties Report
------------------------
Compatibility mode, properties unknown.
freeglut (/usr/lib/torcs/torcs-bin): Unable to create direct context rendering for window '/usr/lib/torcs/torcs-bin'
This may hurt performance.
parseXml: no element found at line 1
gfParmReadFile: Parse failed in file "/home/josh/.torcs/config/sound.xml"
/usr/games/torcs: line 52: 27409 Segmentation fault $LIBDIR/torcs-bin -l $LOCAL_CONF -L $LIBDIR -D $DATADIR $*

I can however run it as root.

josh@josh-laptop:~$ apt-cache policy torcs
torcs:
  Installed: 1.3.0-3build1
  Candidate: 1.3.0-3build1
  Version table:
 *** 1.3.0-3build1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status