To say rally racing isn't as popular in the U.S. as it is in Europe is an understatement. For those that aren't familiar, rally racing is usually not on pavement, often against the clock as opposed to other drivers and comes in several different varieties. The driver is usually paired with a co-pilot/navigator who is responsible for knowing the course's nooks and crannies. He calls out turns and advice so the driver can concentrate on the road. If you're familiar with golf, the navigator in rally racing serves a purpose similar to that of a caddie. They have to know the course better than anybody, and they're usually very good golfers themselves.

The game 's career mode is set up in different divisions, from Amateur on up to the big leagues. Each has many, many different events, and each event consists of a few races. Your goal is to win the whole event, so coming in first in each particular race isn't always necessary. As long as you beat the field over the course of the different races, you'll earn points. Winning events and points unlocks tracks and cars. You can also unlock different paint jobs (skins) for cars based on how many miles you log driving them.

When you do race against other cars, you won't suffer the silly tendencies found in many other racing games. The A.I. cars do their best to avoid each other, and most of the time do a good job of running a sensible line. The only complaint about the career mode is in the difficulty. In the beginning, it's very, very easy. There's not a challenging race to be had, actually. It's nice practice at first, but after a while you'll find yourself just logging time to get to the next locked item. But the difficulty takes a sudden turn and it becomes extremely difficult to win. At first it seems like the times posted by the computer must be a series of typos – they appear completely unreachable. But with a lot of practice, you'll inch your way toward the top time. And there's no rubber-band competition – when you get better, you win. Difficulty is good. It's just that the shift from really easy to really hard seems too abrupt.

One thing RC2 is not is a perfect driving simulation. The physics are far more forgiving and over the top than what you'll find in real life. Crashes can be spectacularly destructive without any affect on your ability to drive. But it's also a lot more realistic than an arcade racer like Burnout. Most people will probably consider it a happy medium. You can tune the basics and some of the finer points of your car before each race, like gear ratio and suspension, and you'll notice a very real difference in how your car handles.

The Xbox Live setup for Rallisport Challenge 2 is a mix of very good and very bad. Most of the options you'd want are there: You can race with different sets of rules, including forcing everyone into the same camera view. You can turn off collision completely and race against wire frame opponents that pass through one another. In races with more than four cars, collision detection is automatically off. Rally racing is about racing the clock, and in real life you'd all drive separately anyway. And the whole thing is part of the XSN sports network, with leader boards and tournaments.

There are drawbacks, though. For starters, you'll only be able to talk to racers immediately around you. Someday I might be in the front of a race and it would be nice to heckle the poor loser at the back. But far worse is an oversight that allows the use of different classes of cars on the wrong classes of tracks. Hill Climb races, for example, are races up a huge hill. The class of cars used for these races are some of the most powerful available, and for that reason they aren't used in other race types. The cars used in regular rally races can't hold a candle to them. Through creative menu navigation, it's possible for online racers to use Hill Climb cars in other races while everyone else has a standard car. If you see this happen you may as well trade in whatever you're driving for a stock Mini Cooper because you don't have a chance. There's buzz of a mandatory Xbox Live update to fix the problem, after which time the leader boards will be wiped clean. If and when it happens, the oversight is a shame and any competition from release date to the patch will be wasted.

(Eds Note: A Microsoft rep responded to our inquiry with the following confirmation- “We are currently working on an update to help level the playing field with Rallisport Challenge 2 as some gamers have found a way to gain an unfair competitive advantage during online play. The update will be released once it is through development, testing and certification in approximately three weeks.”

The included music is also a slight disappointment. Custom soundtracks are supported, however, so if you don’t like the tunes you can insert your own.

But there's no disappointment for your eyes in RC2. The tracks, and we aren't talking about NASCAR's ovals of pavement here, are almost unbelievably lifelike. Trees, boulders, snow, ice, mud, sand, spectators crazy enough to stand within a few feet of the track, it all has a level of detail and richness beyond what's been seen before. The cars are gorgeous, too, and the more they interact with the movable objects (signs, other cars) and immovable objects of the track (trees, posts), the more you appreciate the whole package. The damage done to a car in the first Rallisport was superficial. Now you'll lose doors, bumpers and even tires if you aren't careful. Even the most devastating crashes have little to no impact on your ability to drive, however. You'd have to go out of your way to wreck the car bad enough to notice a difference in performance, but it sure is fun to watch. The replays ratchet up the whole visual feast another notch, and in this version of the game you can save them for the next time someone asks you to see the best looking video game.

It would be a shame if a lack of enthusiasm for rally racing limited RC2's exposure. You don't have to be a rally fan to enjoy this game. If your enjoyment of games depends upon graphics (and to some extent that's true for all of us) Rallisport Challenge 2 is a must-own. It's also fun and offers excellent competition – practice and skill pay off – making it as addicting as it is beautiful. Those who are only satisfied with an uber-realistic racing simulation or have no interest in racing in general won't call this their favorite game, but they'll still be impressed. The online issue is the only thing keeping RC2 from being considered a near-perfect game, and it's a shame it has to be fixed via patch. Otherwise Rallisport Challenge 2 would have earned Gaming Age's highest honors.