I gave up on it on ps2, but completed both 2 and 3 in the HD collection. Maybe I got better at gaming, since this time around it seemed a lot easier, and the flying cars were not that bad. I didn't have trouble with the racing, years of playing Wipeout probably helped.
Some sections were still extremely frustrating though, near impossible turret sections and escaping being trapped in a corner of the map where all the shacks are sitting in the water.
It does get better, but it also gets worse...
Jak 3 has an even bigger focus on cars and guns, it feels like the development team didn't enjoy making platformers anymore.