Asphalt 3D does feature some officially licensed cars as well as 17 based-in-reality locations, the ability to earn sponsorships (which provide bonuses to your car), and local multiplayer. Those elements certainly add to the title, but rather than making it deep, only make it seem like a full game instead of a rough draft.
The majority of the top-screen graphics are pretty enough and the 3D well used to place things at different depths. The cars are nice to look at certainly and the backgrounds not bad. The bottom screen however isn't quite as 
nice. That screen is mainly used to provide you with a basic, non-exciting to look at, outline of the course and everyone's positions on it. That course outline also shows you where all the shortcuts are, which is a little weird considering that you get bonus cash for entering one which makes it seem as though they should be hidden. However, even if the bottom screen didn't show you where the shortcuts were, you'll regularly see cash or a wrench or a turbo at the start of shortcut and in a location that wouldn't exist were a shortcut not present so you'll know exactly where to go without ever taking your eyes off the top screen.
In the end, Asphalt 3D just doesn't seem to go far enough. Why have semi-secret shortcuts? Make them secrets. Why have semi-realized crashes? Make them big and powerful. Why have a decent sense of speed? Make it blazingly fast. Asphalt 3D is an arcade racer that could never be remotely considered a simulation game but which doesn't seem to truly embrace its own arcade-ness. If it wants us to take the plunge, it ought to do so as well.
Asphalt 3D is rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) by the ESRB for Mild Violence.
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