I also came into the wonderful world of flying from racing 10th scale electric and 1/8th scale nitro offroad. This beats racing hands down. Like one of my instructors said, racing is 2 dimentional where flying is 3 dimentional. I went with the mustang pts before doing alot of homework and then found this website. Thought I had made a big oops. I love the mustang. I got the rtf with the sim and spent alot of time on it and it really does help. I, by advice from my instructor and hobby shop owner, removed all but the wing droops and installed a 2 blade prop. They said it had more get out of trouble power with a 2 blade. I have only been flying it at half throttle so far and it works well. Your experience with cars will help you with your knowing how to control the plane when going away and coming to you. Alot of instructors will say its not a trainer, but you can learn on it. If its what you want, get it. Spend time on the sim and fly with an instructor. I bet you will get the hang of it pretty quick. Also read through the several pages on the mustang pts thread on here. There are alot of tips to help you when building and may save you from some typical arf issues that are common.
The radio that comes with the rtf seems to work quite well and the engine (in mine anyway) runs great. A word of warning though... this hobby is addicting. im about to build my 3rd plane already.