YOU SAY: Victory Run is boring and cornering is atypical/lame.
THE PARIS-TO-DAKAR RALLY REPLIES: The strategy involved in choosing car parts, based not only on your driving style, but on the road conditions as well (sand, savannah, etc.), adds some enjoyable management challenges to an otherwise standard Rad Racer clone.
I happen to love Rad Racer and it's ilk, so Victory Run is a more cerebral/challenging variation. Keep in mind: if the parts-management aspect of VR was poorly implemented, I wouldn't be pleased. I think parts-management was executed properly: you can get through the first few races without being too thoughtful...but if you want to progress to the last few stages, let alone beat the game, you have to be pretty damn careful with how you plan things. This, to me, is the perfect balance: allow newbies to worry mostly about driving skills...later, the parts-management becomes crucial (in addition to ramping up the driving challenge).