hmmm, well I liked underground 2 and I'm probably not gonna street race, but its fun. I'm gonna guess here, but you like realistic games?
about the "For half the money these freaks spend on their cars, you can just go buy a normal car that will totally stomp the lot of 'em." comment..err its a game, and if you go replace the engine of a car it will perform better than the car it was, so if you get a honda civic, replace the engine completely, and race againt a normal civic, you're skrewed.
as you can tell from my standpoint on this, I am a fan of N4S Most wanted and the undergrounds. Gran Turismo, I've played it one or twice, is a fun game, I'm not sure ifyou can change the car's exterior or whatever (like in underground-2-mostwanted) but racing with the same car, on the same track, over and over..sounds repetative. N4S Underground 2 and Most wanted have free roam, so you're now limited to racing, and you can change the cars exterior. I prefer Most wanted over Gran Turismo, but about the realism, N4SU2 seemed realistic to me, exept the people..at the end of the races...i don't think it runs at double the frame rate..maybe 1.5 times faster, but hmm doesnt seem right... N4SMW mat have the same frame rate, they havn't released it yet, or many dets on it so when november comes along, we'll talk more