The game is not playable with analog stick since there is no deadzone and no way to set it -- leading to the car starting to steer unpredictably when you are trying to go straight. You can still steer with d-pad, and this seems to disable the stick input when you do, thereby solving the problem.

Also, as a minor inconvenience: you need to summon keyboard and press enter on the "press start" screen (no deck buttons seem to do the job).