On the subject of the story mode, I'm actually a huge fan of the way the story was presented. There's so much to like!
The characters have so much more depth to them than just liking cars and being champions. Ajeet for example is a master mechanic and can talk in depth about the latest Beltra Icon Mk3, plus everything he's done to it. However he's only good at what he does, which is build and maintain competition cars. As soon as you stick a camera in his face, he gets nervous, comes across as a bit awkward and bumbles a bit.
One of the big complaints I see about the characters is "They made Ryan McKane the big baddie, even though he was the good guy in Toca Race Driver 1 waaahhhh!" The thing is, even back then, Ryan was an arrogant, unlikeable hot head who had this god-complex of being the greatest. It makes perfect sense that 15+ years later, he'd be in this position of doing anything to remain seated on his throne of being better than everyone else, even if that's dirty driving tactics or downright cheating.
I could go totally English teacher mode about all the different characters, but I'll leave it there!
For me personally, I suppose the content of the story itself strikes home a bit more because Seneca's transition from a semi-pro team on a humble budget and scarce resources to being a fully fledged professional top team is exactly what I'm working on doing with Hooncorp, albeit minus the constant globe trotting and having a garage full of hyper exotic race cars that get used for a race or three, tops. So there's that added layer of relatability when I'm seeing Marcus trying to put the team's best foot forward even if he's having a tough time with sponsors or generally incompetent prospect drivers
Anyways, I've finished the story, loved it, now onto the career mode!