i just looked a bit more into the game that the cxc simulations rig i got to play on in florida runs. it is a sweet game, nothing fancy needed to run it, and there are both free sample/playable limited version and a $40 full version.
it has a ton of courses and cars available, it is open source so more gets added all the time, upgrades for different views, and it has feedback for most of the popular PC steering wheels and such.
it also looks like there is a large online community with a variety of leagues and stuff so you can link up and play against friends.
check it out,
www.rfactor.net
gonna warm up the old desktop a bit and get a steering wheel and peddle set. anyone else interested?