LA Rush a waste of time for hardcore driving fans and arcade driving fans alike
Every other aspect of it stinks. The game drags you out onto it's race circuits and don't be surprised if you can't make it very far without succumbing to the urge to cheat and find another driving game. I love driving games and am also a fan of the Burnout series, and I didn't appreciate the overstocked police, uninteresting setting (except for the amusement park which is kinda neat), and bland races. Crashes are by far too frequent, and because each one includes a slow-mo rendering, you might start swearing after each crash. The car collection is just ok, and the customizations are terribly basic, in that you have to drive in to west coast customs, and you get it "pimped out" for you, no interface there. And the money system stinks, too. You'll frequently have to go back and race the less expensive races in order to afford the later races. Since you won't know the tracks at all at first, I dare anyone not to have to do this. You will not win on the first try at any race, except for the first couple of them. And in a four-car race, you have to place third to make your money back. You would need to place first always though, if you want to pimp out more than one of your rides. Fourth place means you lose your money and have to backtrack, most of the time.
All in all, I don't see anyone needing to buy this title, and if you are hit with some nostalgia in wondering if it's anything like San Francisco Rush of N64 fame (which wasn't a terrible game at all for the time), you may warrant a rental, as it feels like that game. It shouldn't feel like that game, however, as our standards should grow with time.
One more sidenote, the sound isn't that great either. You will hear the same boring tracks over and over again, and none are tracks I want to hear, especially over and over and over......