Trying to look back at this objectively, it's not particularly good as a game. Of the three win-conditions for a race (drive until finish line, wreck all opponents, kill all pedestrians), it's wrecking all your opponents that is almost always the best strategy since they don't really have a defense against that. AFAIK only you can fix your car, so it's not even that hard and victory through destruction is pretty much just a question of time.

And yet, I had a ton of fun playing this as a kid. The value of this game isn't in the challenge, it's more in the aesthetics, the fun of a physics simulation, and the freedom of a sandbox.

Also, the soundtrack rocks.