Call me crazy, but I kind of like it. If you go into it expecting all the things you normally get from a racing game, you'll be disappointed, and I can see why some people hated this. I don't blame them for that, and it's not a traditional racing game, but that's not really what it tries to be. It's a racing-themed, structured linear action game. The game has a strong identity and a simple but compelling setup. The linear progression means every "track" blends nicely into the next one, and as you're traveling such a huge distance you'll see many varied environments. It also means you only go through each of these levels once, which removes the repetition aspect that I feel can often be disheartening in racing games. The game has a couple of entertaining set-pieces, my favourite one being the time you rush across a snowy mountain during an avalanche.
Not that I love it or anything... It's short enough to be finished in one sitting if you have an evening free, it's plagued with annoying quicktime events, and the long unskippable menu after every race (which displays your progress in the completely meaningless XP system) severely breaks the flow of the game. Not great, and can't compare to the best NFS games out there, but I think of it as it's own thing. It holds the NFS name but doesn't really have much in common with the others. It's fairly unique, and worth a play unless you're a purist, so grab it on sale.