You obviously haven't played a) any of the real maps or b) any decent custom maps. All of these require you to run through checkpoints throughout the course. And this game isn't a simulation racing game, it's arcade style. I think it's one of the most addicitign games I've played in a long while since I can boot it up and start racing in just a minute or so. It also is the closest I've seen a game come to the old S.F. Rush games w/ all the crazy tracks and jumps. Overall goodness.

Yes, there are many crappy tracks and many VERY good tracks out there. The shortcuts that are possible (not the shortcuts that cut out large pieces of the track, those are bad tracks) are usually put there on purpose to challenge racers. In my opinion, this game takes a pretty hefty amount of skill, you could be off in a turn by just a few degrees and ruin the lap you are running, or you may have to take a wide corner in order to be at speed for a following ramp. A server called "The Great Milenko" has some of the best tracks I have ever seen, and they are all custom. I've actually found that the tracks made by Nadeo (especially the I-series, and except a few in the pro-series) are very very bad, and generally only about 3 out of 30 players even complete one lap. Look around for a server, you may find a variety you like (after all, there are limitless possibilites). Hell, you could make your own.

I'm MCaN, put in a few hours of play, its a fun game.