lofting/splines is THE way to go for tracks/roads. there's no better way imho
Have you seen some of the 3d meshes that make up the Gran Turismo tracks? They really are works of art - seen from above the track is very obviously just a thin strip with very little to the sides (high poly density in the centre drops rapidly to huge polys in the outer areas) but in the game it appears (mostly) as an infinite and convincing world. I still prefer 2d pixel graphics to 3d but I can see a certain beauty in 3d meshes such as these, constructed with such attention to what's visible and how best to utilise a relatively small amount of polygons.