I think I'm going to pick this up when it's super cheap on Steam, but not before. I have Ridge Racer Type 4, which was indeed the best game in the series, so I don't mind this not being a true RR game. I don't really see the problem if it's a good game in it's own right, to be honest, they're probably doing what they did with Resident Evil: having the numbered series alongside spinoffs with other names, like Code Veronica and that new one wot I forgot the name of.
Also it's a known fact that on the whole Japanese developers aren't doing enough to stay relevant, some even admit to that themselves. Maybe handing the series over to Western devs was a good move, particularly when the last RR was so bad.