Lasseter's writing seemed unusually pedestrian (see what I did there?) and contained no surprises from start to finish. It was cute, really cute, but it seemed like one for the kids in the writing, whereas every other Pixar movie didn't feel this dumbed-down. And that's been what has previously made Pixar movies so good! They give real actors a shot at real acting in animated movie. Voice actors seem to be focused on over-emoting, frequently claiming that their voice is the only tool which gives the character life; they fail to give any accounting for the animators' ability.

And, yeah, the cornering thing was about drifting the corner. The emergency brake was not specifically mentioned (and it's not prerequisite), though counter-steering to compensate for the rear of the car's slippage is.