Gameplay : There's only two modes, Grand Prix and Time Attack. Time Attack is really good to use to get yourself used to the layout of the tracks. Grand Prix (season mode) is the guts of the game. Here you will make a Team Name, and be able to choose the colors to your cars as well as design a team logo, and adjust tire grip.
Through earning Bronze, Silver or Gold on the tracks, you'll advance and also earn credits ($), if you earn enough credits you can either upgrade a car or buy new ones. Upgrading a car will actually change it's appearance, and of course its performance.

Challenge : For the first season (Grand Prix mode), you can get by just using AT (auto-matic transmission) and just upgrading AT performing cars. However after you beat the Grand Prix you'll unlock the Extra GP and this is when you'll need to master the MT (manual transmission), cause it'll be critical for you to master the 'Devil Cars', only one of'em has AT, the other 2 have MT. You must also learn how to either Grip drift or Slide drift around corners.

Music : There's quite a few tracks you can select from, and a hidden track you can get to use in Extra GP (Deep Drive), alternatively you can pop the disk into a CD player and skip the first track, it'll let you listen to Rage Racer intro theme as well (Track 2).

Fun : Needless to say.. I'm played through this game countless times, What always seems to draw my attention is the Logo Design option, I once even created the Hot Wheels logo to place on the cars. The only bad side is that the graphics are a lil' choppy/glitchy, and the collision sounds are a bit off, but if you can look past those two things you should have no problem enjoying this game.

Buy VS Rent : I really doubt you could rent a game as old as this, plus if you can find it in a store anywhere, it should be pretty cheap, so I'd say buy it.