You make lose speed and get taken off your line temporarily, but only major collisions will result in a crash. If you happen to wander off the asphalt and into the grass or sand, the game is also forgiving there, as well. I wasn't really happy with the default camera. There's nothing wrong with it, but I found myself spending too much time gawking at the animations of my rider and not enough time looking down the track. Once again, the game settings allowed me to tailor the experience to my needs, resulting in much more enjoyable racing.
Most races are close affairs.
Lap times don't differ by more than a few seconds between the leaders and the trailers. This makes for a lot of good racing, and places an emphasis on being able to navigate through traffic. The speed perception of SBK2K1 is also spot-on. There is a distinct difference between riding wide-open and crawling around a 180 degree turn. Superbike 2001 has improved, but the changes are not spectacular.