Though short and very easy, there's some enjoyment to be had here.
You start off with playable characters. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy. They have some unique skills. Sonic has good top speed and can double jump, but his handling is poor. Tails can fly over short cuts, but is the slowest and easiest to handle, Knuckles is probably the best because his glide allows him to take short cuts and his speed and handling are inbetween that of Sonci and Tails. Amy is usless in her car, she can't jump and is slow, though she does have a turbo boost and can float over water. There are also six unlockable characters
There are only five tracks in total and four are accessible from the start. The tracks are short and laps typically take about 35 seconds (depending on the course, that is only a rough estimate) The levels have a few alternate routes you can take. In the course you pick up rings to open up gates leading to Chaos Emeralds and Sonic coins, rings can also be used to activate boost pads.
There are Chaos Emeralds located in the first four levels, two in each (one on the first level). If you find them and win in first place, they're all yours. Collecting all seven will enable you to unlock Super Sonic. There are also five coins dotted around each (except for the last) level. If you collect all five and come in the top three you'll be able to face off against a rival such as Metal Sonic or the so called "cursed" Tails Doll. Beat them and you'll be able to play as them.
The game is so easy and you should have no trouble at all with it. However controls can be a bit stiff. Also this may be a foot racer, but the characters behave like cars.
Other game modes include multiplayer, time trial, reverse time trail (running the track backwards), balloon collecting (collect the five balloons hidden in the track) and a Tag mode. I rarely bother with any of this, but it's a welcome feature.
As for graphics, I don't know if this is considered good or bad for a Saturn game. it's easily not as good looking as the stuff you'll see on the Playstation 1. The music uses Euro pop, which is surprisingly good. Though the music doesn't really suit the game play, the tunes are quite catchy.
Unless your desperate to play the Saturn version, get Gems Collection to play this. Gems Collection uses a port of the PC version, and differences only apply for graphics. The time of day changes from day to sunset to night to sunrise then back to day again. the weather can also be adjusted to sunny, rainy or snowy. Rain and snow will make the track more slippy and snow will also enable you to take short cuts over frozen water. This personally made me play the game just to see what the different levels look like at different times of day and with different weather.
Sonic R overall, is a fun game to play when you want a quick easy, but fun game play experience. I find myself selecting this frequently on Gems Collection.