Part Sim, part Arcade, but still fun.
Perhaps a patch will fix the steering. But as it stands, it is still fun with a controller.
I read many people speaking of this game, and a lot of complaints, and calls for patches. I think they have patched a number of things already, but the steering and paint booth still needs work. I mentioned the steering, but the paint booth freezes, and the controls are, well, wonkey. My nephew built a car, and we could not save it because the on screen controls froze.
(EDIT- Last night they patched the game and fixed the AI a bit, and the paint booth seems to work now)
I find it fascinating that some still only use a keyboard to play racing games. I think I would find that very difficult as well.
Analog controls is the way to go here. But still, with a controller, it is still hard and not intuitive to hold a line. You must learn how it works, and fight logic in how it should be, to master the steering here. I agree, it is not ideal,, but with a controller you can make wide sweeping moves more easily then you can with a steering wheel.
This is Nascar, not F1 racing. So people should not compare the two. Compared to F1 race cars, Nascar race cars are tanks.
I had little problem on some tracks, but other tracks were very difficult, and AI cars would smash into me quite a bit, causing constant yellow flags, so I turned the flags off for a while, and found it fun to drive through crashes and keep going for a while.
Bottom line is, it is a fun game, but with a few right patches, it could be great.