Trackmania Predecessor- Part 1

The most obvious place to look for the predecessor to Trackmania: Sunrise, is the first game in the series, known as Trackmania. This was released in 2003. It offered the same blend of racing action and puzzle game that its sequel built on though with slightly less polish. For example, the sequel offers two new game modes (Platform and Crazy) plus customisable skins for the cars you race.

Despite this, the core mechanics of the game remain fairly similar throughout both of the games and the comprehensive track editor features in both games, as does the online play. One of the main differences between the games is in the car models. In the first game you only had one car for the whole game and the model was small and didn’t have much detail. However, Nadeo really went to town on the sequel with high detail models with some good customisation options included. There are also more car types in the sequel, such as the Jeep style 4x4. As well as this, the tracks look much better in Sunrise, with nice reflective lighting and better textures.

Being that they are overall extremely similar games, I think the main difference between Trackmania: Sunrise and its predecessor is the greater attention given to the models of the cars, and on track detail. The core mechanics of racing against ghosts and the stunt racing appear in both as does the blend of puzzle and racign action.
Overall I believe that this conclusion from Gamespot.com adequately sums up the two games:

"TrackMania Sunrise is pretty much exactly what you would want from a sequel to the original TrackMania. Nadeo has simply taken everything that was great about the last game, added a bunch more to it, and then killed off some of what wasn't so great. Like its predecessor, Sunrise isn't going to appeal to diehard driving fans, mainly because this isn't really a game for fans of racing so much as it is for fans of stunt driving and building the most ludicrous stunt tracks imaginable. Sunrise is more toy than racer, and that is in no way a bad thing. Fans of the first TrackMania will love the sequel, and any stunt-driving fans that ignored the first game really ought to give Sunrise a look, as they will find themselves pleasantly surprised by what it has to offer."