You can always play the cracked version in signle player, but of course you won't be able to play online. And that's what this is about. You can see there isn't anything you can do in single player, everything focuses on multiplayer, online leagues, lfsworld.net with all your statistics etc etc etc.
I don't think it's expensive at all. 1st version was ~20USD, played that for a year, then 2nd version came out agin for same price, playing that for almost a year as well. So 40$ for 2 years of fun, is well, nothing actually. It's 1/2the pcire of a DFP.
40$ is an evening when you go out, and have some proper fun, drink and eat a lot. So you can miss one night being out, and get a game, that you will never ever regret that you bought. And also bear in mind that this game is done by 3 guys only, so it far from finished yet. In fact, current version is an "alpha", mile away from being final, but even at the moment, it rocks! I think it's well worth the money, and in my opinion all the people here will tell you the same.
Just find a way of gettin 40$, and invest it, it's a long term investment anyway. And if you have a ps2, gt4, and a dfp, I guess 40$ shouldn't be hard to dig up.