Okay the short 5 lap races in the beginning are cool and all, but this game really shines after you start getting into the longer, more involved races.
I decided to do the High Speed Ring mission, which basically means you have 30 minutes to go from last to first (low to mid 20 laps). The tricky thing is this race uses dynamic weather, so you have to keep an eye on the water gauge, and make decisions on when to pit, whether to go intermediates or full wet tyres, save gas to go on long stints, or stay in fuel 1 and burn it all after 6 or so laps, etc.
The crazy thing is the AI seems to struggle with this too, with some drivers going in immediately when the rain starts, whereas others stay on the slicks longer, and try to eke out another fast lap or two. I was amazed to see how utterly slow some cars had to go, and even then there were a few yellow flags from racers getting spun around (I even got a 5 second penalty for overtaking during yellow
).
Its rare and refreshing to see a racing game where the AI is so good at both driving fast, and also mimicking human error. So often in other games I've seen AI drive perfectly on the racing line even under shytty conditions, but that is not the case here, and it's really quite amazing.