I played this one on the WiiU, which may have been the superior version at the time. It looked good, but never really pulled me in honestly. I doubt I put 5 hours into it sadly. Sadder.... I think I gave NFS Carbon on the Wii (BARF!!) more time. (please god forgive me for my sins)
I think why It didnt resonate was the fact that I had played so much PGR2/4, Forza 3/4 and Burnout Paradise (a game I worked on!)that it felt like a step back in comparison. When Underground came out, it was a pallet cleanser after insane amounts of GT3 A-Spec. And that drift mode was addicteve as all hell. It was Tony Hawk ProSkater with cars almost.
Oh and I forgot to give a major shout out to NFS underground on the Gameboy Advanced! Holy shit was that better than it should have been. I took that on a 3 week business trip and played teh fuck out of it. "To the windows!!!" (if you played you will get that last bit)