Talk about coming late to the party, Dirt was released late last Spring.  It's a realistic rally racing game that was linked to the late Colin McRea (English Rally Champion). 

The first thing you'll see is a very impressive user UI when you enter the game.  Once you start racing you'll see how impressive the game looks.  The lighting is great and the cars all handle well. 

Rally racing is a different type of racing where most of the races in the game are a timed point-to-point solo race.  You are racing against a time instead of other cars for the majority of the races.  There are a few where you race in a pack of cars around a track and some races are run on a crossover track.  These races are fun but few of them are available.

I have to say that I am not a real rally fan but I can see why the Spike VGAs gave this game the award for best racing game of 2007.  Technically it is a very good racing game with beautiful environments and realistic damage engine for the cars. Dirt is a fun racing game and should be in any racing fan's game library.