Played the shit out of this and Rush 2049 on the Sega Dreamcast. I miss these arcadey racers with exploration. Like Beetle Adventure Racing and Diddy Kong Racing. I feel like Burnout Paradise was the end of these.
That's the first thing I thought about when I saw this post. As a kid I loved the secrets in this game. I don't know if it just seems so because I'm not a child anymore but modern games don't seem to have this kind of mystery.