I just solved my problem a totally different way.

I was using screencontrols mod and it was setting all my brightness, contrast, etc. all to values of 0, I don't know why. The ScreenEffects (which I'm also using) readme even says that setting your graphical values to 0 will cause the screen to turn black/gray.

So I turned offthe screencontrols mod (I left the screeneffects mod ON). Problem solved. To check if your problem is the same as mine,look for a matrix of perception in your inventory, then use it to open a screencontrols menu, then choose reset...at which time (for me) the gray screen would reset tocorrect...that's how I knew my problem was related to graphics values = 0 /screencontrols. Just like the rest of you, I can still see my menus wheneverything else turns gray. Hope that helps someone.

Wow, lots of suggetions. Thanks guys. It sounds like TOCA3 has the career progression and somewhat realistic driving gameplay. Or maybe Dirt or Xpand Rally. GTR2 or RACE07 or maybe Richard Burns have enough acclaim that I may have to give one of those a try eventually too.

gtr2 - season mode
Need for speed: Pro Steet
Dirt - close to what I want but floaty
Richard Burns Rally - realistic
Xpand Rally
Project Torque
Race07

Often someone on these forums will ask "What's a good racing game?", but I want to ask a more specific question.

I'm specifically looking for a racing game that's not too arcade-y and has a career mode where you start out racing small-time events/cars, you take your winnings and buy more expensive car types to race in new race types, and end up racing Indy cars or whatever (it doesn't have to be this exact prgression. I'm open minded about it; it's just that I don't want to only race Indy cars or only race stock cars on a rally track, etc.). It's the progression I'm interested in, even if that's not realistic for a real life driver. This was the game mechanic in a really old PC game I enjoyed playing years back called Mario Andretti's racing. I also like the idea of parts upgrading on any certain car, but I imagine almost all racing games incorporate that now.

When I say not too arade-y, I mean absolutley no "catch-up" cheating for cars that lag behind/wreck, and I'm not interested in anything remotely like Need for Speed, but I'm not a hard core racing fan either (not at all actually...I'm just a gamer). If what I'm looking for doesn't exist then I guess I'm still interested in what comes closest.

Thanks.

I haven't played all the online games you have (never played City of Heroes/Villians) so take that for what it's worth.  But I have high standards for stories in games.  That is to say that most highly rated single player games don't do a good enough job...and separate missions in an online game telling a story like some kind of pulp fiction is not my cup of tea.  Also, the main way the online RPG's manage to make you feel like part of the world is by emphasizing that your avatar is you...agreed.  But that's just the first step in immerssion.  In fact it's not even completely necessary if you do everything else right.  Also understand that I'm not one of those people that ever complained about linearity much in games, and I see games out there that are sacrificing way too much too achieve so-called free form gameplay.  I'm a bif fan of "muck up the works" style free form gameplay (as Warren Spector puts it), but besides that...its no big deal...unless it's a tactical shooter.  I DO want to be able to approach a room takedown in as many ways as I can dream up.

1.  There are so many great single-player games on my "to-play" list that I don't have time for the online ones.

2.  Atmosphere and story are two of the BIG draws for me in a computer game.  Good gameplay is great too, of course, but I want to be drawn into another world for a little while...and there's nothing less realistic than roaming a midevil looking countryside while passing other player-characters controled by 13 year old kids using leet speak in the chat...only to realize that the story is also watered down because of the limitations of such free-form gameplay. 

3.  Montlhy subscriptions.

4.  Afraid I'll get hooked on games that are leveling/equipment grinds. 

Lemme say right off the reason I don't play console games (in general, I'm playing FFXII right now) is because of the lack of mouse/keyboard support.

For me it all dates back about 10 years ago.  My friends all got really into playing 4 person PvP split screen Bond.  Of course I was right in the middle of a pretty good Counterstrike kick and I was watching them play thinking "They're terrible.  I'm absolutley going to destroy them."  Of course that didn't happen when I realized how hard it was to aim and move with a gamepad (even taking my inexperience with a gamepad into account).  Though my prior knowledge of that sort of gameplay certainly helped me out some, in the end I wasn't even one of the better players.  I just sat there and didn't say anything about it.  Though of course I was irritated...thinking "If I could only plug in a mouse and keyboard I'd be dominating them so badly they wouldn't even want me to play anyomre."

I was pretty happy when I read that Microsoft was going to allow PC/XBOX cross-play online.  There's SO many console-ers out there that have no idea how completely inferior a gamepad is for a 1st person shooter that I was delighted thinking about how obvious it would be in 6 months time (after implementation of said service) how every time a console fanboy got schooled he'd see it was by someone on a PC.  Literally, I don't even think it would take 3 months before console players would start complaining that it wasn't fair and ask for segregation again.  That would just underscore how important the mouse/keyboard is as a control interface and maybe we'd actually see some game support for it in the future on consoles.  Apparently Microsoft already saw this scenario coming b/c I read they won't be allowing PC/XBOX(360) PvP online intermingling on many of their biggest games that are shooters.  Obviously on a sports titleor a racing game you'll see no difference...maybe even a console advantage if the PC player doesn't have a PC gamepad.