I'm sorry to say this, but it's really my opinion after playing the game 2 hours with a wheel. I may have been spoiled by the handling of pCARS and AC (2 games that work very differently under the hood) but that just means theCrew is just not as good as it's competitors. In terms of open world and driving it should be awesome, but the landscape just doesn't hit me as it does in other games.
I have bought skyrim in the last summer sale and i have taken some moments to look at the environments on top of hills, it felt amazing. But the landscapes in theCrew just don't harvest the same effect on me. Yes, they are great places to see back in a game but it's just not good at blowing you away. The cities look real and what you can expect form the real locations, but the feel of size and stretching out just isn't there. The same with the grand canyon, it's fun to raid and drift there, but that's where it ends for me, it's not a particular spectacle to look at.
The game just doesn't have anything appealing to make me feel like buying it.
It's probably just me only liking new stuff, as TDU1 was the newest of the newest concept...