A decent racer for a younger audience, or even those that just want a fun time around the track.
What's Good:
The story mode! I like the fact that the developers made the game's plot take place after the movie. Often you'll find movie-based games try to cleverly add story plot points that are supposed to intermix with the movie because basing the game only on the movie wouldn't yield enough game-play time. But this way, you still get to play as your favourite characters (Lightning McQueen for the most part in story-mode) and you get to do so in your favourite locations, without the constraints of following a story line you already know.
Radiator Springs. The town is big enough for you to go cruising around and enjoy a leisurely drive in-between taking on new missions and races.
Unlockables. You have a decent selection of characters to unlock, and a number of different paint jobs and even a few chassis tweaks available for each character. The points required to unlock the bonuses (including movie clips and artwork) aren't too stressful to accumulate either.
Voices. You get many of the actual actors from the movie (including Owen Wilson) to do the voice acting for the game. It's always nice when the game characters voices match that of the movie.
In addition to the story mode I'm going on about, there is of course other modes included. These let you jump right on the speedway either by yourself or with a friend, or let you pick from a selection of mini-games such as Tractor Tipping!
What could have been better:
Driving in reverse is a pain because they automatically switch your view to looking backwards, which then switches your steering control. Of course, you shouldn't be driving in reverse all that often.
The steering control overall could be a little tighter.
Voices. Although the voice actors are the same, the production value isn't always there. Some of the dialog sounds like it's coming from a studio booth instead of the characters in their location.
I'm sure some more seasoned gamers who are also Pixar fans, would have appreciated a little bit more of a challenge.
Although the Radiator Spring courses are varied, the actual race track courses are pretty repetitive. Like NASCAR racing it's more about technique then the track itself. But since cars dumbs down the racing a little bit there's not much technique to worry about, so you find yourself just driving in circles.
A fun experience for gamer-families and "Cars" fans alike.