Hmm... I think you're looking for a simulation racing game, but not so realistic that you're not able to control the car if you dont have a steering wheel and pedals.. Have you tried GTR2, GTR3 is either on its way or has released.. will have to check.. anyway, I personally think that if you want track racing games, GTR2 is one of the most realistic racing game you will find.. also, you can tweak the simulation settings so its basically upto you how much simulation you want.. you can tune your car (not buy nitrous kits, turbo charges and stuff) but be able to tweak each and every dynamic config in your car like they do in races.. downforce, gear ratios, tyre pressures, no. of radiators, no. of brake cooling vents, max RPM limit, tyre toe-in and toe-out, type of tyres, soft, hard, medium, slick, rain.. etc.. suspension stiffness, softness, height, travel, damping, and then you even have caster angle, camber angle etc.. amount of fuel in car, coasting, amount of preload on the differentials.. etc etc etc.. and if all this is too much simulation and boring for you, you can still start racing rightaway.. and the above settings are not just for their sake.. just tweak a little bit, and you will notice differences in driving.. you can actually plan a whole strategy of winning a race and accordingly tweak your car.. eg.. to be aggressive on lesser laps, to be defensive in long races, tweak for track with lots of turns, tweak for track with long straights and requiring top end speed.. etc etc.. choices of car is limited to what were there in the real world races.. the tracks are also all real.. all based on the FIA Racing championship..
and one of the things I love the most, that the common problems we face in simulations is that of steering exactly the amount we need which is not possible with keyboards.. for this, in this game you can steer with your mouse, and believe me, once you get a good grip of your mouse steering , you are gonna love, just put your throttle on the left click, brakes on the right, and change gears with your scroller..
its not a compulsion to buy all those pedals and steering wheels and gear shifters to be able to play this simulation properly.. the only drawback would be no absolute control on throttle, its either on or off, same with brakes.. but theres more, you can set the sensitivity of the throttle and brakes. which decides how fast the throttle is increased or decreased, and whether the brakes are applied gradually or suddenly.. trust me, play this game, if you're looking for something even close to simulation, first thing to do is throw away all your NFS series in the dustbin.. the only one that ever came close to simulation and which I like till date, is the NFS porsche edition.. .. even GRID is not simulation and neither is Test drive.. all these games are such which will have all the features to tweak and stuff.. but if you've to compare them to actual real world behaviour of cars, they're all crap..
. Whenever there was a car in front of me , I braked and tried to overtake it without getting into contact with it 
