I didn't play the game before they patched the physics, but the patched physics aren't horrible.
For one thing, each of the different disciplines has its own handling, so your experience kind of depends on what you expect from each one. Street is pretty standard arcade-style handling, Dirt is drifty and weighty, Perf accelerates harder and is extra grippy, and so on. I enjoyed Street for cruising, Perf for highway runs, and Dirt for drifting up and down mountain passes (Dirt is the only one that drifts well enough, including on pavement).
What makes it kind of "meh" is that overall, cars are kind of wobbly and regain traction awkwardly after a drift, the sense of weight or momentum is lacking, and your car can do unexpected things when catching air and landing. Plus, I had to adjust the steering options to suit my preference (it offers a few adjustable sliders). Like @DDastardly00 said, it's an improvement over the TDU games, and I would also probably rate it comfortably above NFS 2015 (I haven't bothered to try it, but it resembles HP2010's and MW2012's wacky physics).
) because the concept appealed. It's a fun enough pick-up-and-play distraction for when I didn't want to play pretend race car driver.
