As with a great deal of applications, Vista has issues with running programs that seemed to run just fine on XP. Check the developer's web site to see if they have released a patch which could address this issue. Worst case scenario, you could always try to run the application in a Virtual Machine, although I've never used a VM for video games. VMs are free for download at the MS site ( http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspx).
 
 
I'm not guaranteeing this will work, but it is a good start.

Interested also.

Have you tried these:
Need For Speed Carbon + Vista = Problems.
 
And there seems to be a new patch out, 1.4.:
http://www.nfscars.net/file/view/carbon/7078.aspx
 
("In version 1.4 of the game these conflicts with Windows Vista are solved, according to EA" - Wikipedia.)

also what video card are u using i had vista for a month but decided to put winxp back cuz i couldnt play duke nukem 3d awsum ms dos game if u get all the nude patches for it but i rented a pc and had on board vido 256 mb with pixal shader 2.0 but always crashed after the mouse pointer came on screen i am now running intel pentium d dual dore @3.00ghz 1 gb of ram and an ati radion x1950 512mb and ran perfectly on vista as v1.0 the original cd version.....we want quality not piece of shit hardware