I personally found this Most Wanted to be one of my favourite arcade racers ever.
And it depends on what people have in mind when they say cult following. Some of these kids need to realize that 6 other Need For Speed games existed before Underground, and those games also have a cult following.
For me this game is what the future of NFS should've been, blazing fast and frantic racing, a mix of classic NFS with Burnout. After all it's Need For SPEED, not Need To Rice.
Also the title wasn't misleading, it was just Criterion's take on it. Not being the most wanted player withing the game, but among your friends. Best times, who had a better jump on a billboard, speed cams etc.
Multiplayer was and is still played to this day on PS3 at least, loads of people even on DLC map, even more on non airport map. And after almost 5 years... it speaks for itself.
There's a nice party vibe to it, even a drive to a meet up can be a race in itself. Sure, sometimes there are some bad playlists like 5 Challenges in Exotics which no one likes, but most of the time it's a nice balanced mix of 3 races and 2 others. And it's very, very competitive.
The map is also awesome, it's layout is made with speed in mind. Theo complained about drifting being to easy, well duh, it's an arcade racer. It's point is to go as fast as you can.
Also note, Venom isn't the fastest car in the game. With long gears Agera R and Veyron go up to 281mph, with Venom at 264. With Short gears it's around 260-something for the first two and 240-something for Venom, if I remember correctly.
Also a short memo on cops, yes they are slow on heat level 1 obviously. But come level 2 and they roll out with Chargers, 3 adds Explorers aka Rhino's, 4 is a strong mix of previous 2, 5 comes with Corvettes and spikestrips and 6 is none other than SWAT with Riot Trucks.
Is it perfect? Nah, no games is but if this direction was on track we could've had an awesome future for NFS. Instead a bunch of grown teens whining "we needz kustomization", 2 years and it was a total let down. The promised customization was limited, very limited. Cops were weak, so weak you could literally get away in a stock Volvo. The handling was horrible, it gives Pro Street run for it's money.
Well that's just my opinion, that's about all.