Ok, this is going to be my last post on this, as clearly people are missing the point of what I'm saying.
Look, there's nothing wrong with a driving game not being realistic, I like arcade driving games when they are done well. I'm currently loving DIRT 2, it's unashamedly arcade but it feels fantastic, good slidey fun with responsive controls and a great feel to the cars.
Shift fails at being a sim because the physics are crap, which would be fine if it had fun arcadey handling. But it doesn't, it has frustrating controls and a physics model that is difficult to get to grips with not through accuracy or realism but through simply being crap.
The game does have it's good points, I love the cockpit effects, it looks pretty, the sounds are great, and sometimes when it all goes right you can have a genuinely enjoyable race. But that all goes out the window when the physics engine behaves in an utterly bizarre way for no reason whatsoever, and I feel like throwing my controller through the nearest wall.
Roll on Forza 3.