Though the game does not use EAX, Creative Alchemy still can be used to enhance sound quality. It will just emulate DirectSound and 3D positional audio with OpenAL. Difference can be easily noticeable when music is off. For non-Creative cards users see or use. Run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode to avoid crashing career mode while using Alchemy/ (alternatively as admin, or use 13AG widescreen which will most likely fix the issue).
Sometimes whole career need to be started from the beginning with compatibility mode and Alchemy enabled. The solutions are to avoid disapearing car in career menu and crash after attempt to race. Alternative fix for the issue can be found.
Compatibility mode can cause resetting of the game settings. Please note that attempt of changing details in the game (renderer reset after returning from video settings), and either alt tabbing, have an influence on audio quality, also giving diffreent results depending on gAudioMode setting to 0, 1 (default) or 2 in registry. Subtitles.