Ok, I want to throw out an idea, one that I think would make this game the best ever. Anyone here ever hear of an app called "Strava"? It's something that we cyclists use that is like crack cocaine for cyclists. If you haven't seen it before, you can get a preview here:
http://www.strava.com.
Here's the basic idea. You take your bike out, fire up the app and hit "Record." Then when you are done, it uploads all the data to a server somewhere. It stores your speed, you GPS location, altitude, acceleration, decelaration, etc. But the part that is really cool is you can create "Segments". When you create a segment, you get to name it. Then, as other riders ride the same segment, it compares their times and creates a leaderboard, aka King of the Mountain (KOM). And if you have any doubts of the crack-like nature of this ... one person has died trying to break someone's record and regain KOM on a segment.
Ok, back to racing. If this game or any game like it allowed you to record segments with your iPhone or Android phone and allowed you to upload them, they could build something into the game to use that data to create personal custom tracks. Ok, I realize that's a lot of work. How's the bang for the buck?
Ok, well, here's where it would get really cool. Us racers could drive out to our local tracks, record it and voila ... we'd have a new race track to race. In a matter of months, every race track in the United States (and most other countries for that matter) could be created, complete with actual distance, changes in altitude, etc. with the accuracy of a GPS. So ... for starters, the hardcore guys would eat this up.
What about the more common average gamer? Well think of the possibilities. A high school student and some of his friends map out the High School parking lot and then battle online for KOM and Fast Times at Ridgemont High!!!
You could setup quarter mile drag tracks. You could ride the loop around DFW and have a Hwy 635 track. Dallas to Austin and back? Obviously there would have to be some limits ... but dang.
Oh, and one more thing. The guys writing the app would not have to actually build all of this. All they'd have to do is design the interface (the data format, a way to upload that data, and then a process for building tracks from that data). Once they published the API, it would be up to software developers like me to write the app. It'd be fun.
Epic?