Last month Sony took a much anticipated first step toward getting GT5 in the hands of the public by releasing the demo. Since that time, Sony was proud to say the demo has been downloaded over a million times.

First question in my mind: where the hell is the game? It’s been in development forever. And sure, they’ve got new engines and all that, but Microsoft has dumped two new versions of its racing sim on the world in the time it’s taken Sony to get GT5 together.

Then there’s this: A million times? Like one? Only one? Granted, it’s a single platform release, but that’s still ridiculously low for a top tier title. Oh, but that’s only stats for 17 countries participating in some crazy Time Trial Challenge, which doesn’t include Japan, the States, or Canada.

Last question then: why should we care?

Today, Sony said we’ll get a look at their next-gen racer before year’s end. There’s just one small hang up: it’s not really GT5. Not by name anyway. Well, not in the US, anyway. The new content, available as a download on December 17th, will be called “Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge” in the US and “GT Academy 2010” in Europe.

So why not just a demo? Why not a racetrack from the game, like we saw for Forza 3? As things are, it seems like Sony is just trying to tease us along, reminding us that GT5 exists. The whole thing feels like some really poorly done GT5 marketing, where no one goes home happy and everyone wonders what the hell happened last night.

The worst part is…this is GT5! Come the hell on, Sony! This is the game that pioneered serious racing for console gamers. The game that created the Forza franchise. The be-all-end-all of racing sims on any console. Looks like we’ll be waiting a few weeks to see anything remotely inspiring about the franchise.