Oh! The previous game was in sepia because it was a flashback
(why does everybody recognize me here, I have never been here before in my entire life)
Of particular note -- one of this game's big Features (aside from some weird pre-L.A. Noire animated facial texture photography) is establishing a Crew and conquering the city with the aid of "wingmen" with special abilities you can activate mid-race. The game starts you off with the guy on the right, a dude named Neville who's pitched to the player as comic relief, but he's incredibly encouraging on the radio, he's willing to repeatedly ram other racers with his car to give you a shot at victory, AND there's a cutscene where he brings you soda! I've only played this a few hours and I've already canonized him as this game's Tomoda