I haven't used a wheel in a long time, but I like the D-Pad a lot better than the stick. I suppose it's unrealistic, but for everything except a long sweeping corner, you can turn a lot better when you can instantly go from max left to max right. I've seen a lot of people say they like to use the right stick for the accelerator, but the buttons are pressure-sensitive, so I don't see any reason for that.
The best controler ever was the Namco neGcon. It really sucks that GT2 and GT3 don't support it. It worked for Ridge Racer 4 and Wipeout. It seems weird, but once you get used to it, it's perfect. It's like a DS controller that twists in the middle.
Mr. Chriswell, you've been guilty of posting a lot of redundant threads. I'm formally asking you to do some research before posting new threads. This topic has been covered many times before:
I mean, really, people. It only takes a couple minutes. In the time it tales to complain about people telling you to use the search function, you could have used the search function. Cheese-and-rice.