Midnight Club: LA is one of the best racing games I've ever played and the Complete Edition is on sale for $15 on Xbox Live. It gives you a gorgeous open-world city with realistic traffic, brilliant street design, a great selection of licensed cars and music, and best of all - the same excellent driving physics from GTA IV. Playing this game in cockpit view is one of the few times I've felt truly behind the wheel and trusted the road in front of me, instead of constantly glancing at a mini-map. I highly recommend checking it out if you enjoy open-world street racing, or if you need something to tide you over until Rockstar returns to Los Santos.

I want to second this. The AI can be a bit unbalanced on the tougher races, but the selection of cars and level of customization are great.

Well worth fifteen dollars.

I think they patched the game since launch to adjust AI difficulty, but yeah I still notice some subtle rubber-banding.

It's essentially a game about navigating and reacting to traffic at ridiculous speeds, choosing the most efficient route, taking shortcuts, and knowing how to ease off the gas when turning. The real delight comes from feeling how each vehicle class handles differently, and like you said the car customization is almost up there with Forza.

Looks like the sale is active through Labor Day Monday, then the price is back to $20 (still worth it in my opinion). Let me know if anyone gets this; I'd like to mess around with some of the online modes but only a handful of people out there still play, and I'd much prefer tearing up the streets with some fellow duders.