Monte Carlo simulations for top pair and single top production at the Tevatron

Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are indispensable tools for top quark physics, both at the current Tevatron collider and the upcoming Large Hadron Collider. In this paper we review how the Tevatron experiments CDF and D0 utilize MC simulations for top quark analyses. We describe the standard MC generators used to simulate top quark pair and single top quark production, followed by a discussion of methods to extract systematic uncertainties of top physics results related to the MC generator choice. The paper also shows the special MC requirements for some example top properties measurements at the Tevatron