This game is how you do driving games. So many things about it lead me to give it a ten out of ten rating.
Let's start with the graphics, whilst not nearly the most important thing in a game, the graphics in this are the best graphics on any console this generation (ps2/gc/xbox) and I think will stay that way.
The circuits, wow... the circuits? Just... wow... how do they do it. There are numerous real world circuits like the famous Nurburgring Nordscheiffe and there are city circuits for new york and London. There are rally circuits and even F1 circuits. The best circuits however, are the custom ones. They are so memorable, each circuit is memorable, the most memorable circuit is possibly the mountain one, where there is a long straight with overhanging trees above creating a beautiful shadowy area where the light shines through so slightly, at the end of the straight you emerge into the sunlight for a moment, before turning into a tunnel.
The cars, I could go on all day, you can buy pretty much every car you've ever seen. They pretty much have them all here, right down the Mercedes Benz "horseless carriage" from the late eighteen hundreds. All the classic vintage cars from the DeLorian from back to the future to the latest Audi TT, from touring cars to race cars to F1 cars. You can upgrade the cars too and fully customise the suspension and drive-train and the game is so realistic that it mirrors real life with its precision.
Everything is pretty much spot on right down to the way the cars lose horsepower very very slowly once the mileage gets high. Changing oil and even washing the car can make all the difference to races.
The races, well the races are there, from specialised races to each brand, right down to pickup truck races and endurance races lasting up to 24 hours. Also in this game is the new b-spec mode which lets a computer controlled driver do the driving while you manage it through an interface, adding a sort of strategy to it.
There's everything you could possibly want out of a driving game in this game, everything. There is nothing I would change, I mean that wholeheartedly, I have thought about it, and with the exception of adding in licenses for Ferrari and Lamborguini, this game is missing nothing whatsoever.