FH2 in particular has quite a good career mode. I like the whole "road trip" feel to it and whilst it's nothing special, it gets the job done and you do feel like you've achieved something at the end of it. Maybe it's because the final race is a marathon in and of itself, though.
You know what did have a great career mode? NFS: Most Wanted (the first one). That's more of an arcade racer than a sim racer though...and whilst the different modes in FM4 were good they were only strung together by some pretense of your "pro ranking" or something of that ilk. Perhaps it's best for such games to avoid a story mode altogether, and just have it like GT5.
There was probably a point to all this but I'll be damned if I can remember what that point was. Still, sounds like Project Cars is enjoyable which is good enough for me.