Start with Racing then get the Touring car after completing the Standard Championship. You'll cruise to the finish even on Hard. All you have to do is use Nitro off the starting block and the acceleration and handling will take care of the rest. If you don't, the whole pack will body you and you'll get stuck everywhere. It seems like only the leader really gets the bonus Nitro that spawns on the track.

I liked the different camera views, I mostly did top down but switched to behind view for the last series. I didn't like the player icon that hovers over the car in this view, pretty annoying.

Races are basically 50 seconds. The handful of maps are nice, and I don't mind going in reverse, but at some point it starts to feel repetitive when the difficulty never gets any harder. At the same time, going for 100% didn't take ages.

I think the only difference between this and Evo might be the weapons mode. I did just enough to get an achievement, otherwise I ignored it completely. Same with MP, you get splitscreen but the achievements are only for matchmaking.

Definitely play on Hard to keep the heart-rate up. Casual cartoon racing when the mood strikes.