Will,
the demo WAS pants.
It is a bit of a Marmite game I reckon.
It certainly isn't a 'proper' racing game, the best way I can describe it is like Burnout with cops and robbers. One player will get boring pretty quick but multi player and online
Imagine an 8 way game with 4 trying to evade the other 4 police cars...
I would maybe suggest renting it out as you could love it or hate it really....