Today, it's an inspiration to games that aren't actually lacking.
Before you can really do much, you need to do the tutorial. It get extremly annoying, but when you get done with it, nothing gets much better. It doesn't seem to offer much besides 2-player. The race tracks won't addict you, nor will the race cars. There aren't any real name-brand trucks and the most intrest you can find are the colors available.
Excite Trucks brings a new idea to the Wii where you hold the Wii remote vertically and you move the car by turning the Wii remote to the left or right. It's a neat idea, but it's too bad it doesn't work too sharply. The Wii remote doesn't do too bright at identifying which way you are turning the Wii remote. Sometimes, you'll turn it left and the car will turn incorrectly right. This idea has inspired more producers to use the same control scheme and for Nintendo to invent the pheripheral known as the Wii Wheel, but it most everyone else got it right.
If you were looking for a launch title that was a racing game, don't put yourself game. It might be a little enjoyable with a friend. But these days, of course there are way better racing games for the Wii that do way better with the control scheme.