I should have this game in the next day or so and am anxious to play it.
If any of you guys are serious hardcore sim racers there is something I suggest you check out - iRacing on the PC. Its by far the most realistic sim racing experience you are ever likely to get. Its not cheap though but they HAVE just reduced their prices a bit. You can pay by month, every 3 months, 6 months, a year, or two year subscriptions. You would just have to check out their website to see how the prices break down but its reasonable if you are really into hardcore sim racing.
Alot of the real racers from across the globe use iRacing as well. Marcos Ambrose, Martin Truex, Dale Jr, Bobby Labonte, Mike Skinner, Joey Logano, Parker Klingerman, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Colin Braun, Brian Scott, Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti, and a ton of others from various forms of racing use the sim.
IMO anyone who wouldn't want to take this really seriously wouldn't like it much. You have a sporting code to follow and dirty driving can get you parked. This keeps the kids and the wreckers out of the servers for the most part. You have a ranking progression so you can't just start racing the COT from the beginning. You start out in Legends cars and move up to other oval series in steps - you go to Late Models, then to Trucks, Nationwide, and finally COT for the oval discipline. In the road course discipline you follow a similar progression as well.
Not trying to persuade anyone to the iRacing path but if you are honestly looking for a hardcore sim racing experience this is the best you are going to get.