Need for Speed: Pro Street erhielt von Gamespot einen Game of the Year 2007 Award in der nicht wirklichen positiven Kategorie Dubious Honors – Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising, auf Deutsch etwa Zweifelhafte Ehren - schändlichster Gebrauch von In-Game-Werbung. Einer der großen Gründe der Gamespot Redaktion war Version mit XBox Live.

Meinung der Redaktion von Gamespot:
You might figure that a racing game would have a couple of advertisements in it; after all, auto racing as a sport has come to be associated with aggressive advertisers who slap their logos all over race cars, driver uniforms, TV broadcasts, and anywhere else they can possibly squeeze in some commercial messaging. But Need for Speed ProStreet is a street-racing game, and street racing isn't exactly the world's most popular, mainstream, televised sport.

Likewise, Need for Speed ProStreet isn't exactly an example of in-game advertising restraint. Playing the game offline isn't all that offensive, but as soon as you jump on to Xbox Live, the deluge begins. Aside from the fact that the game gives you the option to flat-out pay $25 in real money to unlock advanced cars (and get an unfair advantage over players who start from the bottom), and that it constantly pesters you with this "option" each time you go to buy an in-game car, the game has dynamic ads that start downloading the very first time you get online. What's worse and even more ridiculous is that the game's Xbox Live achievement points have ads attached to them. That's right, even the achievements in this game are brought to you by a commercial sponsor. This kind of obnoxious salesmanship really hurts the game experience and makes ProStreet a lock for this category.