I get this kind of problem while running the game in Windows Vista. It runs untill the race after which we have to buy a new car. After choosing the car, when i press enter to accept the car purchase, it quits to desktop with same error message. After applying some tricks in registry and compatibility settings, i was able to move on from there but after a few more races, it stuck again. Dead End!!!
I think the problem may be coz of my video drivers (intel 915 XPDDM drivers 14.25) as my card doesn't have the vista specific WDDM drivers. I am actually short on disk space on my 40 GB
hdd, so can't try the game in XP. After i upgrade my laptop hdd to 160 GB or something, i'll try it on XP.
Also i think the cr@cked exe that comes with the pir@ted version of the game has this error, not the retail one. Anybody could confirm that?