Developer Bizarre Creations has made some terrific racing games. Take PGR, for example. Great game. Bizarre knows racing games. It also knows something else. According to Bizarre's Ben Ward:
I'm not going to mention numbers but not really, with the exception of Mario Kart, which has done very well because it's a Mario Kart game. That is the exception rather than the rule. But generally titles, I won't name any names, more recent titles that were really good, critically acclaimed and we all played them, they didn't sell as well as can be expected. I know sales is one thing, but sales are reflective of people who are interested in the concept and interested in what they want to play. So if it's not selling then the developers are doing something wrong and pushing it in the wrong area. We totally rebooted with Blur. All of these things we think are wrong; we're trying to fix them.
The people sure love their Mario Kart. Shame they don't love other racing games as much. Upcoming racer Blur is Bizarre's bet that it can put out a racing title that does well with critics and retail. We shall see.
Blur Interview [VideoGamer]