when you make people pay for glorified demos that is always the risk..... coincidentally it did make me momentarily remember playstation underground, and how back in the ps1 days i waited for those every month, i dare say only a hand full of games i got i had not demoed in the PU ... got me into test drive 5 back when test drive rocked .... made me think that the gt prolog should have been a part of that revived thing thye have online for PS fans cant remmeber the name of it

You bring up a good point.  Providing a limited, free demo can create demand for a title, but making a "pre-release" version that has many of the features of the full game--and then charging for it as well--seems like it would just lower demand for the final product.

An counter-example I remember well was Faery Tale Adventure on the Amiga... my friend let me borrow his copy for a few hours, and I got completely hooked and bought a copy the next day.  I wasn't willing to pirate software, so I bought my own copy, but if a company is going to make me pay for a completely functional "pre-release" version instead of a demo, then it better be something I'm really into to get me to purchase again later.  Unfortunately, racing sims just don't fall into that category.