Well, it ain't GT, that's for sure.. hehe. The control is more along the lines of Need for Speed, although without the sliding/drifing (in this game, if the rear comes loose, good luck getting it back). Traction seems to come into play quite a bit.. for example, if you take a corner too wide, and end up in the grass.. Right side on grass, left side in sand... the sand will "grab" the tires as they sink in, just like real life.. which means the car immediately spins to the left, and most likely into that pretty wall just a few feet away.
The graphics are a couple notches down from GT3, but still rather nice. That's not really a bad thing, since GT3 is still one of the prettiest PS2 games. The car models are nice, and the tracks themselves are fairly detailed, but the off-track areas (stands, buildings, trees, etc) seem low-detail compared to GT. It's got the same dynamic reflections that GT has, though, so the car's reflecting whatever's around it rather than a generic environment map.
DAMAGE.. hehe. You can beat the holy crap out of these cars, and it shows.
It also affects performance.. hit the front end too often or too hard, and you damage your engine and steering, making it harder to accelerate and control. Slam into a wall at full-speed, and you're out of the race.. not only does the front end fold up like a tossed newspaper, you'll even see wheels flying away.
There's also a guy talking to you on the radio throughout the race, which is kind of neat. Having played GT and NFS for so long, I can pull off "moves" in the corners to gain a spot or two, and he'll come over and say something like "Ooo, nice maneuver!" or "Now THAT'S driving!" or something to boost your ego a couple notches.. hehe.
The whole game seems built around the career mode.. Isn't this the sequel to "Pro Race Driver"? That would explain it. In order to do any free racing, you've got to go to the "simulator". Like most games, your choices of car and course are limited from the beginning, as you have to earn them in career mode.
All in all, it's not the "best" racing game out there, and I wouldn't call it the "Ultimate Racing Simulator", but it's a good diversion, and should keep me occupied for a while longer while I wait for GT4.. hehe. I was up in the air about buying it, but the fact that the MSRP is only $29.99 was a big plus.. you won't have to worry about spending fifty bucks to play it. Based on that, it's worth the money.
I did have to look around for it, though.. Best Buy didn't even have a listing of it in their computer, much less on the shelves.. one of the game stores in the mall hadn't heard of it, either.. GameStop had it, though, "Just came in today" and hadn't even been put on the shelf yet. So if you go looking for it, and don't see it on the shelf, ask.. they may have 'em behind the counter.
If I go online I will definelty get video! 👍
They would spin in circles and start swaring! 
Methinks I'll go looking through the track/championship listing again once I'm finished with this one.
pretty good graphs but awful physics, it's got to be one of the worse racing games I've played in the past couple of years. 
