I think upgrades are a bad idea overall. In both online and career. In online races you need cars with the same powerlevel for exciting races. Now you have two classes within a class : upgraded and not upgraded cars.
I think upgrades as an idea are fine, but the way they're implemented in the game is not interesting at all.
Grid 2 had the best upgrade system. It needed commitment (upgrades were expensive, you needed to grind money) and it gave you choice on what to upgrade.
It was nice to experiment with different upgrade builds to find out which one you like the best.
Legends have few different upgrades per level, but it's pointless, because you buy them all after unlocking the level after all.
Could as well be just a single button for each level, instead of 5.
Also, spending your money for upgrades in career just to find out that you are SLOWER (compared to AI) is kinda laughable.
Right now, the only point of upgrades is locking you from those last 'full upgarde' races - you can't compete unless you grind and upgrade your car fully.
