Pros: Awesome cars, graphics, sound (especially in HDMI), and just plain fun.
Cons: No restart event option, but that's probably because it has no menus.
The bottom line: Go get it! If you like racing games, or even like open worlds, this is for you.
Despite negative reviews (I'm looking at you, jrhigh34) this is really an awesome game. Awesome enough to have won the "Best Racing Game" award of 2007, and to get a couple "Editor's Choice" reviews, from the Playstation Magazine, Gamepro, and probably more. If I was an editor, I'd probably make this my choice too! Think of it as the "Halo" or "Call Of Duty" of racing games. Gratification aside, here's the review.

There is really no objective in Burnout Paradise, just crash, smash, and boost your way to get your Burnout Driver's License. It's an open-world racing game, where you are no longer confined to the lonely and desolate race tracks, but instead, are left to race in a bursting city full of shortcuts, jumps, and such. But races aren't the only thing you're allowed to do in Paradise City (it really is Paradise.)you're also allowed to do Stunt Runs (Get target score or more to win), Road Rage (My personal favorite, where you have to crash a bunch of competition cars in the time given without crashing), Marked Man, where you're the one that's gonna get Taken Down (Burnout Lingo for crash) and you have to get to the finish line without being totaled, and Burning Routes, where you have to get to the finish line in the time or less.

The open world racing can be used to your advantage, but it can also be your demise, since it's easy to get lost, like in Downtown Vancouver. Every stoplight is a start line for one of those events above, and you're no more that 3 minutes away from an event, especially in the downtown area.
The soundtrack for the game falls short of spectacular, just basically replaying the tracks from previous Burnout games, and incorporating new music from bands you've never heard of. The controls are easy enough to master, and once in your head, you can drift, and spin wherever you want.
Online Paradise City is fun too. You're just a click away from the online experience, and once online with up to 8 players, you can do challenges, race around, and just Take each other down. By the way, to get cars in Paradise, you either get rewarded them, for upgrading your license or whatever, or you can take them out the fun way: Crash 'em in the streets.

All in all, this is an awesome game, truly worthy of the best racing game of 2007, and it's one that'll stay in my ps3 for a long, long time.