2D Wheel Joint physics

I have experience with the 3d side of unity. I'm trying to work on my first 2d game, its a side view racing game.
I've been trying to work with Wheel Joint 2D. It doesn't seem to be made for this purpose. They have only 2 parameters, setting max torque and target speed.
Then there is no way to read RPM directly from the Wheel Joint 2D. You have to get angular velocity then manipulate that with the rest of your formulas.
Anyways what i'm getting at is that i can't seem to get anywhere with it. Does anyone know of a better way of approaching this? Is there an asset for sale or am I just straight up using the wrong approach?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

I'd say you're using the wrong approach, but that might not be the case, as it depends on what you're doing. I rolled my own.

Melvin May, the guy responsible for 2D physics in Unity, is a bit of a doer and not much of an explainer. As such, he's got a few demos here, which you should dissect to understand how he's done things, and what can be done with those things.

 

I looked into that demo by Melvin May. And it seems that its only supposed to be used for very simple vehicles. It appears there is no way to manipulate the variables to make it what i want it to do. Hint: Act like an actual car. Not just instant torque, and a set max speed.? In which there is no place to read current speed from the script. You just have to get rigidbody velocity.
Personally, I think the WheelJoint2D should either be redone, or keep that for simplicity sake, and make an entirely new 2d wheel controller.
Thanks for the help anyway, I'm just going to give up on that project for the time being. Unity is really the only engine i know.