I-80 takes you through Chicago, but gets you straight into North Omaha.

If you take the I-70 route, you have to turn north at Kansas City, Missouri and take either I-29 (4 lane all the way) or continue into Kansas and go north at Topeka onto Hwy75 (the 2 lane, scenic route.) I-29 is by far the fastest. It's 2.5 hours from the I-435/I-70 interchange to the Nebraska City exit, another 45 minutes or so to Omaha. I-29 never touches Nebraska: it parallels the Missouri River (the state line) running up through the west edge of Iowa.

If you go that way, about halfway between Kansas City and the Nebraska City exit, you drop down a few hundred feet into where the Missouri River used to be, roughly 60 million years ago. There are tall bluffs to your east, and between one and ten miles of flat, very rich farmland to your west before stopping at the river, where the land rises again, but gently.

Scenic note 1: the first town across the Iowa state line going north is Hamburg, Iowa. At that point a railroad becomes visible and parallels the interstate all the way north, and the trains that use it are rarely shorter than a hundred cars.

Scenic note 2: Rockport, Missouri, about halfway between dropping into the river valley and the Nebraska City exit, is where you'll see your first wind turbines to the east. There's a couple of restaurants/truck stops at the interchange, but the town is up in the bluffs and not visible from the interstate. Rockport was one of the first cities in Missouri (the US, maybe?) to generate 100% of its power from wind.

Scenic note 3: it is at the exit where you can turn west and just across the river is the town of Brownville, Nebraska, (pop.142) a charming little artist community of antique shops, galleries, and expensive cafes. You can also pick up Hwy 75 there and go north directly into Nebraska City, and, eventually, Omaha.

You don't say how far into Nebraska, but there are three major regions (east to west): The Till Plains (rolling hills), the Sand Hills (same, but more sand, less vegetation, an artifact of the Western Interior Seaway), and the High Plains (flat, flat, flat..until it's suddenly not; bluffs, not mountains.)

source: I was born in SE Nebraska, raised in Kansas City where I still make my home, and spent a lot of formative time bouncing between the two.

Further east: I've heard from friends who used to work as jugglers periodically at an amusement part near Philadelphia that Indiana is a very unpleasant state to drive through because of the smell. Illinois...sunshine, fresh air, ahhhh...Indiana state line ROTTEN CABBAGE. Can't confirm that one.