With a few exceptions like the chopper race and tornado dodging, the main races end up being pretty straightforward, and the bland soundtrack doesn't help matters. There are no extra points awarded for doing things with style or pulling off stunts, so the only incentive in taking the road less traveled is in getting ahead. There are plenty of reasons not to go off course, as covered earlier, but the game also has a damage system. Smashing against too many trees, bumping into heavy debris and taking hard hits from major jumps will all add up and the vehicle will eventually fall apart and reset, potentially costing the race. On one occasion, some decorations surrounding the finish line blocked us and cost us the win. There's no such thing as a second or third place victory in FUEL, so it often seems like the game teases players with open-world freedom but does all it can to discourage its use, making some races feel pretty dull. Furthermore, the small mistakes can literally throw racers off the side of a cliff. Some of the vehicles players are forced to use handle handle horribly, especially when its meant for on-road competition and slides a too far onto the dirt edges. Players can create their own custom races by linking points together on an overhead map, but it's difficult to tell what kind of terrain the race covers until it's tested. Plus, the overhead map makes things look a lot smaller than they really are, so a seemingly short distance can take twenty minutes to cover if there happens to be a lot of hills or a mountain along the way.

Apart from tracks that convert landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge into racetracks, there's really not all that much to see in FUEL besides dirt, rocks and trees. There are occasional spectacles like raging forest fires, but these don't build up to a compelling reason to keep on driving. There aren't any cities or urban environments to explore except maybe the remnants of Las Vegas, but players don't see that until very far into the game. The career mode is vanilla, despite some very creative courses. It supposes that the player is highly motivated towards unlocking more real estate and vehicles to drive cross country in. There's no FUEL trophy to aspire towards, although players are free to make names for themselves in online multiplayer.

FUEL gets a lot of credit for creating a massive open world for players to drive around in. It's an impressive feat to include so much seamless space to drive across. However, the game is a victim of its own theme. Players race out into a vast wasteland without much reason outside of taking in the sights and accepting challenges simply for the sake of doing so. There are some standout events and the concept is very cool, but there's no shaking the feeling that much of the time playing FUEL is spent driving around aimlessly, and there isn't much to be found around the wasteland to make things more interesting.

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