Thanks, @Rock8man. I wonder whether it gets too annoying later in the game, since it does that thing where you start out behind the other drivers. I do know that I bought NFS: Hot Pursuit (2011?) and got annoyed at how bonkers difficult it got after a certain point–you were basically locked out of making further progress unless you got gud. The NFS Most Wanted game (the reboot, not the FMV-licious one with Razor Callahan) was much kinder on that score.