Unpopular take: Need for Speed: High Stakes (PS1 edition) is the best NFS game. I love the vibe that game gives, it has some of the best graphics of any racing title on PS1 (GT 1 and 2 look like shit in direct comparison), the music is amazing, the physics and controls are perfect (not in the PC version tho), and the courses are sizable and have perfectly challenging layouts and a lot of personality.
I love the soundtrack so much I used the programs PSound and jpsx_dec to rip all 32 audio tracks from the game to make a custom soundtrack for my music library. I have a thread where I shared some soundtracks to a few games I had on my Mega cloud drive. I'll add that one to it sometime soon.
As for PS2 era NFS I have a nostalgic fondness for Underground 1, but ultimately Underground 2 might be the best of the bunch. Most Wanted is a pretty solid entry tho (not the newer remake of it however)