So I sent this problem to the support guys and they are currently working on the problem, but since it has been virtually a week I thought I'd throw this out to the masses and see what comes back.
So I start career mode and enter the 2wd, 6 stage competition; aka the first set of races. I am in first overall, in terms of points, and I finish the last race. When the load screen comes up the game CTD.
Now, I've played this stage more than a few times from different memory slots with the same results. I've played this stage without making the podium by the end of the set of races and I get past the load screen only for the game to tell me that I suck, try again.
My rig specs;
CPU: amd 64, 3500+
RAM: 3 gb
Video: Nvidia 7900
OS: Vista (UAM disabled)
Good luck to all who try to solve this mystery for me. I really appreciate the help.

I just wrote about problem I encountered, maybe it will help You:
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/colin_mcrae_rally_2005/solution_for_strange_problem

Thank you for the suggestion. I tried turning on V-sync this morning but my problem persisted: Finish the race, check times, load screen, finish loading, CRASH.

This is the moment, when game tries to make auto-save. Please try to disable this option and write here about results. I hope this is it. :)
But if this is a reason then something must be wrong with creating save file. There was many topics on gog.com about Vista and some directories and permission modes (or things like that) that prevents any changes in files. I am working on XP so I don't have such problems. But we will think about it later - first try to disable auto-save feature.

I hope you are right also :)
I will try this solution and let you know how it turns out.
My fingers are crossed.

Well I definately think that this game is just broken. I tried your suggestion of turning off the auto-save but the same thing happens. So depressing. The load bar continues to make it to the end of the bar but instead of loading the the next area....CRASH!!! I wonder if anyone else who has this game is having this problem. If it were just me then I wouldn't feel so bad at least then I'd understand that my machine is the culprit.
I still haven't heard anything back from support yet either, it has been almost 2 weeks.
Thank you for all of your help Nox_A15. I appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Have a happy Easter!
Just to update anyone who might be following this thread.
I have also tried the different compatability modes and tried to adjust movie quality.
Nothing seems to work. Google and forum searches have turned up nothing.

Thank You! :) I hope You spent this time well too. ;)
I see Your problem with the game is really persistent. Yesterday I tested it on notebook with Intel's graphic chipset and Vista. Even on such machine game runs nice (with all options turned to "low", though). Hmm... lets try basic things then. ;)
First of all - before I thought that Your game crashes after first, not last rally in the "tournament". Now this looks even more strange.
But I think we should try something basic:
1. Download newest drivers for all of Your hardware.
2. Download the game again (I know - it's a lot of data, but it looks like Your files are corrupted in some way).
3. Try to install it in another directory (on the notebook I installed it on OS hard drive, but not in Program Files).
4. Try to play again.
Before install I suggest to try this strange solution with Nero (I wrote about it in my above-mentioned topic) and it will be better to turn off all programs working in the background during play. It all sounds strange, but problem is also like this, so lets try what we can. ;)

I will try all of these suggestions in turn and I will post the results as soon as I have them.

Well, all of my drivers are updated. I've downloaded the game and re installed it (twice), and still no improvement.
I feel about ready to uninstall this game and never look at it again....of course I'm too stubborn to do that.
Strangely, still no word from GOG support. If they can't reconstruct the problem why won't they just tell me "best of luck." or if they've recreated they issue why won't they tell me that their working on it and just be patient. It has been almost three weeks since they have received my game file data. Any team member out there care to answer?

You just gave me an interesting idea. Here is a link to save prepared by me:
http://rapidshare.com/files/223490786/cmr2005_save.zip.html
Slot 3, driver: GOG from Poland :)
There is only first set of rallies finished, so check if You can continue the game without problems.

I have found a work around; it is less then ideal. I had to right click the desktop icon and then click on properties. In the target box I had to type:
"C:\Colin McRae Rally 2005\cmr5.exe" NOVIDEO
Following that I was able to complete the first set of rallies, unlock stuff and save my game. The downside is that there are no videos in the game.
I have just downloaded your file and will give it a go today. I hope your solution is more ideal than mine. I will be sure to post the results so that you know.
In gratitude of all of your time and effort I have "+" all of your posts here. Thanks again.

This may sound a bit silly, but go to the path you installed the game and look for the videos folder under the data folder and see if you can play all videos in whatever video player you want without problem. The videos are wmv so there shouldn't be a problem. If something goes wrong, than it is possible that your video codec is messed up.
In that case, look in Google for the latest K-lite codec pack. Install that and see if it works (in game too). Hell, install it anyway, it a good pack for whatever videos you want to play and it's good to have these things up to date. Remember to uninstall other codecs you may have before installing to avoid problems.
I had video problems with Resident Evil 4 in my machine and that solved that particular problem. Maybe it will solve yours with Colin McRae 2005

Thank You, no problem. ;)
True - there is a looped video after all set of rallies, but it is strange that You can actually run game's intro. Falci's right - if this is really a problem with videos then codecs should help.
I hope You will be able to fully enjoy the game now. :)

After I typed NOVIDEO I could not run the games intro.
FYI I loaded the file you posted and it did not help.
Thanks for the advice Falci. I didn't think of codecs at all.
I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Well, I heard back from tech. support....they say it is possible that I might be missing a movie file or two from their version of this game. They will be talking to the devs to find out for certain if this is the case. Whether or not they'll let me know about it, who knows but I hope that they do. I would love to find out the EXACT cause of this dilemma.
Cheers.