I bought the game on sale about a year ago and it was a fun game, but there wasn't a lot of variations with the races. Since then, there's been a major patch, plus a lot of little ones, that have improves the difficulty of the game and added more variation. You can no longer simply hold the gas down the entire time and braking in tight curves is needed to avoid crashed. Speaking of crashes, the crashing and damage has been upgraded as well and now you can really feel the imact of the crashes. You no longer flip as easily as before the big patch, but it is still possible to roll in the right circumstance.

It is still early access, but I think it is worth the money. I've certainly put in enough hours to enjoy the game.

One last note: If you see any review from June 30th to July 7th or so, ignore it. The physics engine has changed a lot since the June 30th update. Cars are easier to control, crashes have more weight to them, cars are damaged in more extreme ways. In the two weeks since the June 30th major patch, there have been numerous improvements that make the early reviews out of date already.