Yes, yes. It is an absolutely fantastic game, a masterclass in game design. The car handling style was accompanied PERFECTLY by the route design. This is something that later installments relying on Criterion's drifty handling failed at. MW2012's urban setting and 90 degree turns was just not a good fit. Rivals had way too many tight routes and the cars were too heavy, not to mention that unless you upgraded, your cars were waaay too fragile and the cops were way too aggressive. HP2010' country roads, highways with long winding turns? Yes please. Perfect. They also nailed the cop behaviour. They weren't nearly as suicidal as in Rivals, instead there was proper escalation.
There is also a purity to HP2010's general design. There is very little to no fluff. It's a game that put all the emphasis on the actual gameplay, and didn't really waste time and effort on anything else. Sometimes less is more - it ensured very little downtime between events, short loading screens and no cringeworthy story. It reminded me of the classic, pre-UG NFS games in a really good way.