I spent most of my vacations in the late 90's playing Carma 1, and modding more cars to Carma 2 when that came out. Stainless had lots of "firsts" in the racing game genre. Deformable car bodies, open 3D sandbox levels, splitting meshes (C2) along with an advanced damage model and so much more. Saying they did nothing ground breaking is plain bs. GTA at the time of Carmageddons was still 2D, remember?
Stainless as game developers are possibly some the coolest guys out there, very friendly, communicative and down to earth. I only wish I had more money to help them with this new game because they sure as hell deserve it.