I used to be into Traxxas cars. Their fun, and expensive - can spend $$$ on additional bodies, suspension parts, etc...
I had 2 - a Nitro (fuel) car for the summer and a electric monster truck to play with in the house in the winter. Had a Viper body on the car.
See if you can find a local club first or others with one - otherwise it's just you showing it to friends or scaring dogs and it gets a little boring after a while, haha.
I have the original electric 4tec, most of it anyways. I believe I cannibalized some parts for my Nitro 4tec. Also have a Nitro Rustler, E-Revo, and another electric car I can't remember the name of that has a Brushless setup. I'd say they're all collecting dust, but they're packed away somewhere.
Still fun to pull out from time to time, but not worth getting one unless you have a local club that does races like lsiunsuex said.
I have 2 nitro tmaxx, a nitro sport (2wd buggy) and a 4tec with an Orange 69 Dodge charger body. Almost bought a Nitro 4tec, but then the city "re-paved" my street by chip sealing it. My new house is all nice and smooth again, so I might have to.
Know what I'm thinking could be the ultimate in merging videogames, virtual reality and cars......
Put a wide angle camera in the windshield, relay it to a large screen monitor or virtual reality goggles, and set up a steering wheel & pedal station so you can "drive it".
How cool could that be? Instead of just a video game, or just model car racing or just virtual reality.... this would be all 3 combined.
And exponentially cheaper and safer than racing real cars. You could drive a little more crazy or even "bumping" cars in the turns, etc... and it wouldn't cost relatively much in damage.