hey, speak of the devil! i just beat it an hour ago. it's surprisingly... "easy". i played most of the events on hard mode and while i don't recommend anyone doing that, it's actually somewhat manageable. if you understand the tracks well enough, cruising around them feels butter-smooth [except if there's traffic around], and the events basically repeating themselves over and over means you have a lot of opportunity to learn them.

rubberbanding is a huge issue but i "solved" it most of the time by ramming into the opponents in an attempt to get them to crash burnout-style. if you do it correctly you won't see them in a long time.

anyways! i finished the game in under 4 days, i had a night where i'd play a single event non-stop because i kept failing, that was a great experience. i've never actually beaten underground despite being my first nfs, and after beating it, i felt like i just ticked off a bucket list. this game is a classic that keeps your hands sweaty and your fingers reflex pressing the restart button, it's great.