CODE EXAMPLE FOR CSS

select last tr in table css

Your tables should have as immediate children just tbody and thead elements, with the rows within*. So, amend the HTML to be:

<table border="1" width="100%" id="test">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
     <td>
      <table border="1" width="100%">
        <tbody>
          <tr>
            <td>table 2</td>
          </tr>
        </tbody>
      </table>
     </td>
    </tr> 
    <tr><td>table 1</td></tr>
    <tr><td>table 1</td></tr>
    <tr><td>table 1</td></tr>
  </tbody>
</table>


Then amend your selector slightly to this:

#test > tbody > tr:last-child { background:#ff0000; }