ABSOLUTELY INSANE!
Basically, the game isn't focused on racing. It's all about speed, insane stunts, and most of all, oblitterating other vehicles. There is three basic race modes. Race, Time Trial, and my personal favourite, Road Rage, which is all about getting enough crashes before your destroyed. And then, there's intersection crash modes, where you must race into a busy intersection or road, and cause as much destruction as possible. All these modes are fun, and after playing enough, you can unlock new cars. In career mode, you can unlock new cars, tracks, and you get to listen to the awesome radio host who may get old, but it helps to listen, and some things he says actually relate to earlier or later levels. The graphics are great, but when it slows down to show the crash in slow motion, the area outside the road looks really poor, but this is a trivial matter and can be easily forgotten in the overall presentation of the game. The soundtrack consists of fast paced rock, all which suit the game perfectly. The game can be really easy, and really hard, but mostly hard after a little while in the career mode, and you will curse at your screen now and again.
Burnout 3 is awesome. It is one of the crowning acheviements of the PS2/XBOX age.