I just can't but write a longer review about this game, so if you don't want to read everything let me start like this:

If you like arcade racers, are a fan of racing sports in general and don't need too many different gamemodes to keep you entertained, get this game. The different handling of the cars from different car classes is amazing and already provides enough variety in gameplay, at least for me.

So now for the long version.
GRID was one of these games I didn't know I needed. I just recently bought this game but already knew before that it was a thing. I regulary came back to the store page here to check on the reviews and these... oh well... pretty much hold me back from purchasing. Not enough content, multiplayer doesn't even work or you can barely find players etc. You don't really need to search for these reviews.

But my first impression of GRID was really good, the Career alone will take like 50 hours to complete as long as you don't plan to simply rush through it on the lowest difficulty. Speaking of the career; there you will be able to compete in different events featuring Time Attack races, normal endurance races (also some NASCAR races) and sprint races. Overall not a lot of different gamemodes compared to older Grid games but tbh I only played GRID 2 and I wasn't really missing out on some of the events we still had back then. The problem with GRID 2 for me was that EVERY car was almost handling the same way; the only thing that was noticably different was the acceleration and topspeed.
In GRID this changes, the difference in the handling between FWD, RWD and 4WD or AWD cars are more than just noticable. Every car class with it's cars has to be learned and mastered, the difference between 2 groups can be massive.
For instance:
GT prototype cars barely drift, have a lot of grip and you can enter corners with insane speed while TC-1 special cars might be just as fast but they tend to loose grip faster and are arguably harder to control.
This alone adds a lot of variety in the gameplay, getting used to all of the different cars in this game will surely take a while.

As for the tracks provided, they are good. Some fictional routes and some IRL circuits allow for a nice change. Street circuits can be a real ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, especially with faster cars. Older Grid players will probably remember that the best strat for these kinds of tracks is to just simply fullspeed into the first corner crashing into the next possible enemy to bounce off him and getting to pole position. Now this is where this game is a bit different. Sure, crashing into enemies in corners tactically can still be a viable option but once you do that you then have to deal with their more agressive driving style.
Because once you ram them, they are getting pretty toxic and will try to get revenge.
The AI in general is pretty cool, there can always be random crashes and car orgies. It's not just straight forward racing where everyone tries to stick to the race line and that way overtaking enemies without triggering them can become difficult.

The Multiplayer is enjoyable. It is hard to find players but the few races I had against a handful of players were fun. One thing that is unacceptable is that sprint races don't seem to work in multiplayer though as I got teleported with all of my enemies to the end of the track randomly before the real race even started? For a game that has been released almost 7 months ago that is pretty sad to see. Other than that I didn't have any issues tho.

To round it up there are a lot of things to unlock aswell. Liveries, backgrounds, images, banners, achievements and by participating in events and earning credits obvs cars aswell. Player cards can be created and customized and will be shown before a race is starting. Grid isn't giving you all freedom with it, you have to stick with what you unlock, the colors of the paintjobs can be changed and that is actually enough since we're talking about more than 100 of these. I like the leveling system aswell. It rewards you for good and clean racing, sticking close to the race line, overtaking and "sadly" also for drifting. I say that because drifting gives you the most XP by far eventhough it mostly isn't the best option to drift around corners. (still can be useful tho, especially with 4WD or AWD cars) Not like I have anything significant against it, it just cries for XP farming.

Verdict: I can't stop playing, I love this game so much and would love to see it being more successful but it probably won't since older GRID fans are just too disappointed how this game isn't really getting close to the older GRID's. Maybe this game should have just been released under a different name? Would have probably recieved more positive feedback lol.

EDIT: I've just completed all events of Season 1-3 (80 hrs), really enjoyable single player experience, now it's time for me to hunt for some WR's and play some online races when people are around :D