Interesting take there, you've got me curious. I only tried it with a pad and was fairly happy with it. That said I haven't broken out the wheel for anything in ages, just don't play that seriously any more.
Up north heading out of Seattle it seemed that the nice twisty snowy roads have been replaced with ones with light turns and not much elevation (until you get a lot closer to Mt. Rushmore). But then the other day I saw a video with snow in LA, so maybe it's dynamic now? I hope they do add an option for the other map style (non-white) but I guess they feel the need to make things different for the sake of them being different. (You can still zoom into the map to view cars driving around).
I like how all kinds of vehicles have been added, not just cars, motorbikes, boats, planes but also things like a hovercraft and helicopter, there's probably an ATV (quad bike) as well. I wonder if anyone has suggested being able to quick-change to a motorbike?
Anyway I've been playing a bit of TC1 recently to unlock all those 18 extra cars in the sequel (knowing how expensive cars were in-game in the former title). Figured I'd visit all of the remaining landmarks and wreck parts while I was at it.