Makes me sweat, and tap my toes.
Yeah, the track is monotonous. But the missions more than make up for that. Game play is great. 5 stars for fun.

What's frustrating is the waiting. Say you're trying to beat the devious 1961 Dodge mission. You wait 30 seconds for it to load and start up, and within about 5 seconds the other cars around you have banged you up so badly that you've failed. OK, retry. What's this? Another 30 seconds of load time? Cache the bloody thing, guys! Surely I'm not going to jump around from mission to mission; the most common case is to retry until I finally beat it, right? This costs 1.5 stars of overall rating, which I'm rounding up to 2.

A very good game - a must for Indy fans!
Anyone who likes racing should pick up this game, especially with a price of approx. $30 or less. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, it seems to go slower when you have two racers, but only for the first lap or two. For my kids and I, we love the missions (including those that require you to accomplish what some racing legends had to do during the Indy 500).

Meeting the goals of these missions helps to unlock new missions and years (from 1961-71). The newer/faster cars come with subsequent years and missions.

I hope that the creators of this title extend the series to at least include cars of the 1980's in the future. I would definitely recommend this to any racing fan.

This was almost the best racing game I'd ever played, but ...
I really enjoyed playing this game. The track looks great ... the cars are realistic and fun ... the AI is great to play against. Then I played it in multiplayer mode.
When you get to play this in two-player mode, the graphics start to drag ... big time. My friend and I felt like we were out to a Sunday afternoon drive. I wish the developers would have put more time into making sure that this game plays well at all levels. Buy this game, but don't get it for multiplayer racing. That part sucks.

A walk through Indianapolis history
I picked this game up a couple weeks ago, along with a Wii racing wheel. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was not disappointed.

The game isn't as high-end in terms of graphics, controls and modes as some of the long-time franchises found on other consoles. However it offers something completely different that none of them offer.

In this game you walk through each of the individual Indianapolis 500's run from 1961 to 1971, working your way through unique situations that the headline drivers of that race had to do. You have to qualify within a certain time constraint, you have to get through a multi-car crash within a certain time constraint, you have to run the last five laps and finish above a certain position... each of these 'missions' unlocks the next mission. After a few missions, you move to different drivers and the cars they ran in the race.

I like the historical aspect, the facts and the idea that you're having to face actual mid-race challenges that these drivers faced.

As others mentioned, the appearance of the cars is pretty cool. Seeing the suspension bounce like the buggy springs that were in place during those early years is also very interesting. The sounds of the cars are enjoyable and I also like the era-specific songs. (For example, 'Fortunate Son' by Creedence Clearwater Revival.)

You have the ability to adjust the volumes of the music and engine noise to your liking.

If you are looking for an Indianapolis version of Need for Speed or Gran Turismo, look elsewhere. But if you are interested in racing your way through the 60's at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this should be a lot of fun.

If you love the old open wheel cars its a must buy
This game won't be for everyone, but if your like me and sick of the Need for Speed franchise it's a breath of fresh air. I'm playing this on a 720P DLP projector throwing a 10ft wide image and it looks great. I don't get where people think the graphics aren't good the most important things for me are the cars and track which look great. It is very impressive at the start seeing the entire field of cars as you take off. There is also a cool drafting effect that lets you know when you are in the right position. It looks kind of like translucent blue streamers coming off the car your drafting as you get closer they become thicker and change color to a more purple. It adds to the fun of drafting. Another nice effect is the occasional backfire errupting a bit of flame out of the mufflers of yours and other cars. Driving through flaming wrecks is quite well done also.

My only gripe is with the lack of analogue gas and braking controls. Its not the end of the world, but it would have been nice. The steering control is very good and even better if you have one of those wheels to put your Wiimote into for some reason having the Wiimote in an actual wheel even if it isn't attached to anything really adds to the control. The crash effects are fantastic and so is the in the car view. The music is nothing to write home about, but since the games features car engine sounds from the real cars that is really all I need anyway. The anouncer is pretty decent as well.

I haven't had a ton of time with the game just completed 3 missions so far so I will update the review later. Just thought this would help any Indy fans sitting on the fence.

Update

I'm halfway finished with the mission mode and having fun. I really enjoy the way they present the history of the Indy 500. The missions are addictive and now that I've gotten better I will go back and get golds in the ones I wasn't able to earlier. The pit stop missions can be a little tiresome, but overall its good fun. I really like the balance the developers struck between simulation and arcade. It's possible to damage your car, but you can still rub tires and bump around with other cars without sustaining any real damage. If you hit another car pretty hard then yes a tire will fly off and sparks will spray from the bare axle dragging on the ground.

The competition's AI is decent as well although they seem pretty vengeful at times after I've knocked them around a bit :).