At first I though this game was awful, but that was because I had been brainwashed by the terrible reviews.
There are three main single player modes: Story, Quick Race and Stunt Arena. Stunt Arena is almost pointless so this review will be based on the first two. I am going to split this review into two sections (even though I never do this in my reviews and I am a perfectionist):
THE GOOD: Some decent cars to choose from, a lot of road to race on, realistic copy of LA, damage available.
THE BAD: Bad attempt at making a drift racer, bad attempt at making a story involving gangsters and pimps, constant lapses in graphics, most races too easy, slow paced compared to other racers, nitrous having to be collected gets annoying, no conrol over customisations, unrealistic Midway versions of concepts, too American, trying to copy Midnight Club and Need For Speed, very very annoying music, all the cars on the road are the same model of SUV, satelite navigation barely works, one of the main characters looks like a loser with that dumb hairstyle and the list goes on. So as you can see, this game doesn't fare well when you summarise it like that but despite all of this I have managed to enjoy the game. You should give it a try if you have unlimited patience.
Thanks for reading, Jem.