In most cases using a No-CD or Fixed EXE will solve this problem!
There's also a love interest to ogle (Christina Milian, Z-list female celeb fans) but her idea of a romantic first date is, predictably, street racing. You just have to do so many of them (and for most of the game they are very easy) all excitement is quickly drained from the action. Unfortunately, you have to do so many of these things that everything gets very samey, very quickly, which is a shame because the actual races are reasonably good fun and give a great sense of speed.