the game itself is what you make of it... it can be fun or horrible... i have found myself on both ends as a "car guy" myself... some of the stats/mods/how the car reacts are not"real world" related... but you you understand its a game and not life you tend to let your previous knowledge go and start to adapt to the game.. and it can be a fun game...
lets face it is a car game/racing.. not much room for interpenetration.. the cloud ui can get annoying but if your a good driver you can fight to the front... once you get to know the track a little turn off an assist... and see how u do... maybe turn off 2.....
grab a tune/setup from a top 5% guy and see how you do... once you start to feel like your doing better you may start to work at getting faster or beating the next guy in the rivals section... do some hot laps... try and beat your personal best time.. you can and will be surprised what joy you might get from it... you may get frustrated but when you do shave off that half a second it will mean that much more...
the dlc is nice.. free tracks are good... its not like its a sub part track or graphics on it are old..its new and shiny.. as the car packs grow you may or may not like all the cars in it... but hey its a huge crowd to please... test them out...
in the end its what you make of it like any game... if you give it a bad wrap off the bad you wont try it or even give it a shot... you dont have to be vip/seasonpass with every goody... the game works out of the box.. and its one of the best "racing" games on any console... so if you think it sucks all around than odds are you wont like any racing game on the market.