Gravel

In short, this game tries to copy:
Dirt 2's gameplay
NFS Prostreet's campaign
Forza Horizon's skill points
Split/Second's TV show theme
It achieves all this, but in somewhat worse ways than those games did. I found the voiceover annoying and disabled it early on, so I can't comment too much on the last point, but the rest is covered below.
Progression
I got 100% within a day. Rewards are tied to difficulty and assists, so I played on the hardest difficulty with no assists. However, even max rewards didn't net enough skill points show points to unlock everything by the end of the campaign. I assume the devs expected people to get the rest through multiplayer, but nobody plays online. Grinding one of the shortest events for half an hour was enough to get the remaining points.
Gameplay
Without assists, the handling isn't all that bad. A bit unresponsive at times, maybe, but otherwise passable. Damage never seemed to have any effect during my playthrough. The AI occasionally presented a challenge but was otherwise very generic, and bosses did nothing to stand out. Unlimited rewinds and a lack of penalties made things easier still.
The real hard parts were when the developer messed up and caused unintended difficulty spikes, e.g., smash-up (gatecrasher ripoff) events being poorly laid out, and certain time attack targets being so hard that only a handful of people have beaten them, per the leaderboards. To add to this problem, not all cars are equal in this game and you'll need to use the meta cars to beat some events on the highest difficulty.
I mentioned at the start that the gameplay is like Dirt 2. By that, I mean this game mimics its event types, vehicle classes, and locations like a broken mirror. The environment artists did a good job making each location look unique, at least, and some more unique DLC content got added later, but the core gameplay is very much based on Dirt 2.
Story
The campaign sees you go up against five bosses for the crown: Ray Krieger, the Grip King; Nate Denver, the Spee... oh, sorry, wrong game.
Gravel's story consists of five middle-aged men looking at you angrily. I don't know what the player did to deserve the looks. Rumor has it the little balls on top of their matching baseball caps touched and they forgot to say no hømo, and now they'll stay mad forever.
Bugs
Yes, there were bugs. No game crashes, luckily, but both player and AI vehicles often interact weirdly with track geometry and with other vehicles. Expect cars to flip over and go flying pretty frequently. There are also time attacks where the race finishes, the game says you came 1st, and then the standings come up and you're not in 1st. The game has rare stutters too, probably an Unreal Engine thing.
I'm putting night events in this section too because they're so dark. Headlights do practically nothing. I doubt I'd have been able to finish these events if not for the unlimited rewinds.
Lastly, HDR was on by default. Wouldn't have been a big deal except there's no in-game toggle for it; it has to be disabled in the config file. I'm not certain the night events' darkness isn't related to this, either.
Conclusion
It might be a knockoff of other games, but you can still get a few days of fun out of it if you can get over the bugs. I got the deluxe version for $4.80. For that price, I'd say it's worth it. Some of the DLC cars are meta cars, so I wouldn't get the base game if you can help it.

I really miss arcade rally game like old dirt series, motorstorm, etc. This game can bring back those memories. Damn, really recommend this game. Specially when discount. 10/10

Man i love this game, i've been looking for an off-road game for so long it's not even funny. this is great pick if you want off-road action, but not a simulator. very arcade-y but that's exactly what the doctor ordered

I had a bit of a rough start with this one because of many minor but very obvious bugs and some design decisions that I can only describe as an acquired taste. Fortunately, I quickly got over it, because the driving part was just that well done!
Between arcade and sim, Gravel is closer to arcade, but there's enough depth to keep one entertained. Each car handles differently. The variety of elevation and terrain types on each stage affect the cars differently. The physics and the driving experience are believable without being overwhelming or becoming boring. Visual feedback is also really good - I could instantly see the car struggling in some sections and speeding up like mad in others. The feeling of speed was satisfying too. Cars handled well and did what I expected them to do. That's even after turning off assists, which made cars more responsive and drifting much easier.
Honestly, my only complaint about the game is that 2 of the achievements require you to play online. While it's commendable that multiplayer still works 7 years after release, it's hard to find a buddy to play with. If you're an achievement hunter, keep that in mind.
At the time of writing, Gravel runs well in Kubuntu 24.04 with Proton Experimental (Dec.2025), and the DLC is recognised as long as you run the Windows version in Proton. Going through the game with a keyboard was smooth! I did a few races with a controller as well and had no issues.
I didn't do a longer playthrough without Steam, but Gravel also appears to be DRM-free (runs without Steam after installation), which I very much appreciate! Unfortunately, none of the DLC works in this case, but there's still plenty to enjoy in the base game.
In any case, I could recklessly drive all my favourite rally cars (and more!) in unusual and beautiful locations, and it was a ton of fun! Yay!

A completely ok arcade racing game, one of those games that's good to just put your feet up and play with a controller when you're tired without needing to think too much or deal with any deep, meaningful gameplay.

The career is just one race after another with a fair amount of repetition involved, the driving feels okay, the cars feel weighty and responsive etc. I think the AI use a catch-up mechanic to keep up, because I found I was blowing past them after the first couple of corners, but then they'd stick with me right until the end of the race, as if they gain a speed boost when they need to catch up kind of thing.

Some of the tracks are decent, others not so much, and the commentary tries to make it all sound very exciting, using words like EXTREME and BREATHTAKING every time you start a new race, when in reality your breathe will not be taken, nor will you see anything particularly extreme.

Reminded me a bit of Forza Horizon without the open world element. Completely fine for a few quid.

Overall one of the best racing games I ever played!
The tracks look amazing (being built in Unreal Engine, Gravel looks great even for today's standards), it features a huge selection of cars across a large variety of classes and eras, has nice arcady controls, etc etc. The soundtrack rocks, too. The only thing it doesn't do well is locking a large portion of the content behind a paywall of DLCs. Apart from that it's just plain awesome. You can race on ice, see northern lights, race on runways with aircraft around, jump dunes, see shipwrecks, race on beautiful beaches, blast through ice caves, compete in stadiums, race on official race tracks, in quarries and so much more. There are multiple game modes, from standard races, over multiplayer, time attack, weekly challenges and so on. It really offers a lot to keep you interested and coming back for a quick race every now and then. I especially like the classic cars like the Lancia Stratos and love blasting around with it. You can choose the time of day and weather conditions for each track once you've unlocked them, which is a nice plus. All in all this game is just so much fun if you don't expect a hyper-realistic sim and take it for what it is. I love it and would happily recommend it to anyone.

Awesome game loved every bit of it

The gameplay was very easy, some of the cars are difficult to drive.

The graphics are great for an old game, almost feels like this game made this year.

i never had any issues with this game.

most fun ive had in multiplayer, when beating the wife in races hehe.

I would recommend this game.

8/10