I am doing a lot of that - try as I might I get way too much lateral distance from my e-braking. That and AI controlled cars manage to dodge every obstacle flawlessly and handle turns like rally champions.
Not sure about this game from a few hours in. I think I liked it better when it was called Midnight Club L.A. Its got similar arcade handling with an emphasis on maintaining your speed and wild drifts, one large urban setting, civilians that can tribal dance out of your way at the last possible moment, and a fuckton of events scattered everywhere.
Where LA improves on the formula is a day/night transition, more areas to explore (in and on top of buildings, beaches, etc.), seemingly more jumps and more telegraphed jumps at that, and an absolutely bonkers level of car customizations and upgrades. That and I do value street names to help me learn the world and navigate. The San Francisco in Driver resembles my town only if you live in Bizarro world. I mean really, what the hell.
That said, I don't have Midnight Club LA on PC and I do have this. Guess it will have to do. The character banter and story bits are actually well handled and interesting for the most part.
Cheers! When I was first learning object oriented code long ago I thought of NullPointers as a metaphysical concept. I still kindof do...