FlatOut flat out sucks.
To begin, the gameplay. At first, it seems alright, atleast with the main races, but as soon as you start doing the side stuff that has you launching the driver out of your car (i.e., at a huge dart board) this game becomes not only unneedlessly frustrating, but mundane and pointless. The side stuff tells you what to do, but not how. Big difference. For instance, it never tells you what buttons to press, just to press the Nitrous button (an example). You have to look up in the manual just what button these named buttons are, so if bought this game without a manual, you're screwed. Also, all of this side stuff is just completely pointless. It wouldn't be a bother if it was pointless and fun, but it's not fun, it's extremely frustrating.
Now on to the main races. The races themselves are ok. The main problem with the game however is that it doesn't know if it wants to be an arcade racer, or a simulation racer. This really hurts it. The controls are a mix of the two, and end up being atleast challenging for anyone that likes either one of the genres. The game is like a simulation racer in the fact that you can buy new engines, exhausts, tires, etc. with money earned, but it's like an arcade racer in the fact that you earn more money for smashing stuff and have such things as nitrous oxide. Oh, and don't even bother playing it online, there aren't any games there.
The sound in Flatout is HORRIBLE. All the music consists of stupid, boring, $ell-out pop rock tracks from crappy bands no one has ever heard of before. Seriously, the music is BAD. On top of this, it just doesn't fit in to the rural country setting of the game. It only would have been more akward had they picked an all jazz or rap soundtrack for the game. As for the cars and crashes, they sound average to slightly above average; you never really notice them. And as for the voice work, there is none. No one ever speaks in the game, ever (with the exception of some stupid screaming and the songs).
There is no story line, so moving on...
The graphics are unlike the rest of the game. The graphics look great and are really the only strong point of the game. The cars and levels are modelled extremely well. Some of the vehicles lying around in the background of the tracks are ugly, but other than that, the game really does look great. They especially did a great job on the snowy and dirty tracks. The cars, as I mentioned, are extremely detailed, along with their crash graphics. Say you run into a light post and it falls on the roof of your car. Well then, the roof dents downward as if it really did happen. The graphics are really good.
FlatOut is worth a rental at best; however, I must urge you to stay away from it. It's a game with an obvious identity crisis, no real direction, a bad price, and just bad game play.