I actually liked that game. I mean, you could only control your car when you were driving on the street(too bad 70% of the game took place on dirt roads) but it was ok. There was another game that I think was called Street Punks and it was the worst CTR clone ever. The controls were horrible and the weapons sucked. Google took me to Moby games and I still couldn't find the name, although I think it was Street Punks.
I believe the game you are referring to is Speed Punks.
And my vote would be for Wrecking Crew, the PS1 racing game, not the NES game.
Currently catching up on PSN, WiiWare, Wii U E-Shop and Xbox Live Arcade exclusives I missed.