Gameplay is limited by the number of tracks EA decided to incorporate. Fantasy tracks are substituted which are actually quite good. Pit crew simulation is better. The manual is much more in depth. But what I wanted to see were the birds eye view maps of each track.
Crashes are quite brutal.
Cars flip, spin, tumble, skid all over place. When I have a damaged left tire, you can't changed only the left side. You can only change all tires, right side tires or no tires. That is valuable time lost on the track. I've heard NR3 doesn't show this to great detail.