The Race series is quite fun with a wheel and is more sim oriented.
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=SimBin
Race 07 is the basic game, and is so cheap there's no reason not to try it, and then there are numerous addons/expansion packs/etc which add more cars and tracks.
I just discovered trackmania the other day.
I would say get Race07 and the GTR-evo expansion.
Oh that's cool, look's like some good fun.Incidentally, Trackmania 2 looks fantastic, drooling over it already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_-Cq7NgkwQ