Hi everyone,, im here to tell to back up your save game before its too late
many people over the internet had this problem and me also ,, when you start the game and notice that your character looks changed or your cars disappear, or you now a champion and you were pro , there is only one meaning to this, your save game got corrupted and there is not way to fix it you have to start over again, and i don't think the patch will fix this, so back up your save game every time you don't know what might happen the game have so many bugs,, what happens when your save game get F*****,
first the roads you drove in will appear like you never been there before.
second what ever thing you do in the game will never be registered or the game will not understand that you just finished this mission or won a gold cup.
third the game will get slower and drop the frame rates.
forth you will see artifacts inside the news section.
fifth your character will change and he or she will have the default cloth and this is the first sign of save file corruptions.
sixth a big chance that your cars will go away.
seventh your amount of money will change or go.
so please take my advice and backup your save game and if you want more help you can go to this link http://forums.eu.atari.com/showthread.php?t=52861
Good luck till the patch comes out.