Forget the hype about gt5, this is what racing on ps3 is all about, it is a match visually to gran turismo, in high defintion the level of detail is breathtaking. There is plenty of game play options, you ]start out racing for other people where you get paid and you get experience. Then after a few races you can buy your own car, start racing for your own team, with your own colours, name, and eventually co-driver who you get to hire and fire at will. In the meantime you can buy more cars, new or used, sell them again when your done. Winning races leads to sponsors and more money, in fact in the latter stages you can win up to $20 million a race simply by having good paying sponsors.
The sponsors tasks are varied as well, you don't need to win to make money, it might be finish top 5, or finish without damage or even just finish the race. Its a brilliant addition to a racing title.
As this is from the same people who did TOCA and V8 supercars 3 there is damage, realistic, if you hit the wall at high speed your going to damage your car, you'll see the tyre fly off down the track, the front cave in and the information will come up saying what speed you were doing, what g forces were involved and just how much damage was sustained.
There is one downside and that is the replay ability, you can crash, and then rewind slightly before the accident and have another shot, although these are limited, and would be good for the inexperienced, I prefered to have them off all together.