While the control set up is confusing, how the cars handle is even worse. The cars feel way too loose in this game. They are responsive, but not to the degree that a good racing title needs to be. Half the time you'll feel like the cars are driving with only the front two wheels, since the back end of the cars zig-zags all over the track. A lot more polish in how the cars handled would have made up for the button layout. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. But it is not as if the weird controls and loose feel of the game actually slow the cars down. In fact, it was hard to find anything that slowed the cars down in a race, except for smacking into the back of another vehicle. Hitting the walls rarely slowed down the cars during races, unless it was a head on collision or one at a very steep angle. More or less the cars just bounced off the walls and kept going at only a minimal reduction in speed. Also, driving off the road in other racing titles normally results in a huge loss of speed. Not so in Cars. Instead, driving off and on the road resulted in roughly the same speed.
Then comes the A.I., which is basically cars on rails. The opponent A.I. follows a specific path and hardly deviates from it. In fact, on the easier difficulties they actually will drive into one another just to stay on their path. This was typically seen in huge straightaways where three or four car builds up were common. On the bright side, though, on harder difficulties the A.I. didn't act as stupid. Yes, it was still painfully obvious they were racing on a very distinct path, but they did it with much more ease and grace. If there is a challenge to be had in Cars, it can only be found on the hardest difficulty.
The Story Mode of Cars is a simple one. The narrative takes place after the events of Cars (the movie), as Lighting McQueen is living out his life in Radiator Springs. He is not sporting his new look at the end of the movie, however, and needs to qualify in a bunch of simple races before participating in the Piston Cup. Starting races is as easy as driving to a certain spot on the overworld and selecting to start the race. They are scattered throughout the map, but a simple HUD provides a good idea of where to go thanks to color coded icons. In addition to racing, you can also change a car's appearance, hunt for postcards, and perform a number of other simple time-killing tasks. None of them are exceptionally hard, but Cars is not meant to be a deep game.
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