As someone who drives probably the closest thing to a "stupidly fast beast" in multiple forms (Formula SAE car, 400 lbs, 100hp for school; BMW Z4 3.0i supercharged with 380 hp 3000 lbs as my daily driver) on this forum, none of these games will ever come close.  Until you can feel the forces and try to deal with driving a car on the ragged edge while physics attempts to rip you out of the car, you can't really imagine what it's actually like.

Outside of a full sim rig that imposes forces on the players and uses a dynamics simulator that's several levels above what's possible on a home PC or console, it's really hard to get an idea of what it's actually like.

The greatness of this game will be measured by it's simulator's abilities (I hate how companies describe them as physics engines; they're nothing like the traditional physics engine you might see in Crysis or Half Life).  How well can the game model real life driving dynamics?  If it's better than GT5, so be it, but I'm kind of doubtful considering Polyphony has been working at this for a lot longer than EA's group, and they've got an actual race team to help with data aqusition and comparisons.

The first one was great, but I probably won't be using the in car view again. It just takes up too much screen space. I'll be using the zoomed in view where you see the hood of the car. That gives the best sense of speed and placement on the track. I'm not looking at half the dashboard when I'm driving my own car either, just focussing on the road ahead.

Maybe they can make some sort of a hybrid view where it zooms out a bit to reveal the cockpit when you start drifting so it can still look into the corner, and return to focus on the road ahead when driving fast.

The issue is that on most race cars, hell most true sports cars, visibility sucks.  The driver usually sits lower down in the car (to lower the center of gravity) and in a more reclined position.  This makes the cockpit extends vertically over the hood much less than in a normal car.  This means that the windshield is smaller, and visibility suffers as a result.

If it's front engined, you've also got a massive hood to contend with as most race cars are set up with an I6, V8, or V12 (ignoring the prolific Porsche 911, but that's rear-engined anyways, so it doesn't count).  Visibility sucks in cockpit view because visibility sucks in those cars in general.  The head turning thing will help a bit with hitting apexes and such.  Sims would benefit from head tracking SO much.

Sure but then again you're not sitting 9 feet away from the dashboard in a real car. And since the game is 720p, having less then half of that dedicated to the track makes it harder then real life. 

It would be awesome for a 3 screen setup. Or if the resolution would be there so I could sit 1 foot away from a 52 inch screen.

How awesome would racing games be when vr glasses make their comeback with built-in head tracking. They'll be back when 1080p screens can be miniaturized at an affordable price. The problem with those was the low resolution (and bulkiness, wires etc). It's the perfect solution for 3D and head tracking in one. Someone be bold and make a next gen console that doesn't use a tv but comes with HD vr glasses.

I'll have to try Shift or Shift 2 (demo probably) with the weel to see if it does add to the feeling or distracts from feeling just the car. I do agree that it adds to the feeling when driving with a controller.But does it do it in an intrusive way? I mean, the first time you drive something at 250kph I'm sure you are scared as hell, but the 20'th time not so much anymore. That's where simulating the same driver reactions coud get in the way I think.

Need for Speed and PGR are typically the only racers I like these days, and I would love how this would a twist on realism. Wasn't a huge fan of NFS Shift, as I was NFS Hot Pursuit. 

I can't believe need for speed is going for a GT attitude, it looks perfect though , lets wait & see end result, EA sometimes disapoint me with end results

Meh they said the same about shift and we all know how that turned out.

i doubt il get this.... I didnt like the first one.... it got boring as hell after a while.... And i got gt5 and im getting motorstorm and forza 4 later this year..... So no go for me

There is more to being realistic than graphics.

GT5 is considered realistic because it does a good job of modelizing how cars behave and that's usually not what more arcade games do.