The game is better from what we have seen from the recent NFS titles, making a lot of improvements in some areas but a few hiccups in others. To order this review I'm going to separate the review in different sections:

Handling:

Car handling has been massively upgraded from the standard brake to drift we have been forced into using ever since 2010. We now have the possibility to use GRIP handling and IT ACTUALLY WORKS!While it still needs a few fixes, it's definately an improvement.
Drift handling also received a few impreovements, the most important one is that now when you brake to drift your car actually slows down instead of accelerating, making it closer to how a real car works and allowing Grip handling to be really competitive. Handling gets an 8/10.

Story:

Oh boy, this I think it's most definately the worst story we have ever had on a NFS title, from the corny as hell dialog, the constant push of politics and social politics, with wokeness even reaching the cop radio chatter makes this a very unpleasent experience.
It would have even been acceptable if the context of some of the wokeness was somehow tied to the game, but it's completely there just because. For example there is a radio program that plays and mostly covers a debate of what mayor is going to be elected... You would think that this would have some kind of impact on the story, but NOPE it's just there to push a certain political ideology.
The main story aswell doesn't even make sense and it seems as if they didn't even try, we don't get to know who the main antagonist is and what we get in return is overly friendly and annoying characters which serve no purpose nor do they give you any motivation to follow the story.
A$AP Rocky just exists in this game, that's it he has no purpose, he is just a random cameo. Story gets a 2/10.

The City:

The map itself is good, but lacks any meaningful landmarks, which would have been nice to have to make it less dull, but in a few ways it's beautifull and well designed for the handling we have and the type of racing we do. The map gets a 7/10.

Events:

The game lacks variaty in terms of races, for example for B class I'm pretty sure there are less than 10 races you can do not including "takeover" events. Now this is a problem since every day as you progress you can do races from every class you have unlocked but you will find yourself re-doing a lot of the races you have already done before and it can be a bit of a chore to progress thanks to that. The events get a score of 6/10.

Pursuits:

Cops received a massive nerf from the previous game and are mostly just annoying since you will find yourself on a pursuit on EVERY race you do when you have heat on you. Only had a max of 5 cops pursuing me and if it wasn't for the helicopters they are easy to escape. Roadblocks spawning is also really random as they don't usually spawn on the road you are going, but instead somewhere close and you will barely come accross one.
Therefore cops get a Score of 6/10.

Online:

Multiplayer is good and i personally like that the progression is split form the single player, it could give this game a lot more of longetivity, but it still needs a lot more work and to give players a proper payout when winning races. Score of 6/10.

Cars & Customization:

The car list is basically Heat's but with some more cars added and a few removed (Audi) for different reasons. Customization was improved a bit from the last titles also. Score 8/10.

Conclusion:

The game is fun to play but it definately still needs a lot of work.
Summing up all the scores this game for me is a 6.1/10. With more work a hopefully post launch content it can be a lot better and the score could gradually increase with time.