Rocket Rods was actually open to guests for about a year or so. Then, it closed for a "refurbishment," but never got around to re-opening. It's very, very dead now.
It was open, and it was pretty terrible. I found the queue more interesting than the ride itself, and that's only because they chose to kill off Circle-Vision as well to act as its waiting area. Not only did it have vehicles from past attractions in the old Ciricle-Vision holding area (including a Peoplemover), but reproductions of the plans for the vehicles, and video clips taken from such Wonderful World of Color/Disney episodes as "Magic Highway, USA." Then, the main Circle-Vision room showed a 360 video about 50 years of Disney transportation, including scenes from past Circle-Vision shows, clips from WWC episodes, and narrations by Walt himself.
The ride, itself, meanwhile, paled in comparison. It was over in about 3 minutes and really just zipped you around Tomorrowland so quickly you didn't have much of an opportunity to appreciate the scenery you were passing. It lacked narration, as well, and instead made screeching and whining noises that didn't befit a supposed "transportation of the future." To try and add interest, cheesy things like strobe lights, mirrors, and air guns were installed along the way. It was definitely not worth the wait. Many would disagree with me, I'm sure, but it just wasn't a worthwhile replacement/upgrade to The Peoplemover. Ultimately what killed it was that the cars couldn't take the stress of turning unbanked corners (they weren't willing to spend the money when it was built to add banked turns), and being forced to slow down to such a point that it defeated the purpose of calling it a thrill ride.
Personally, I keep hoping a Peoplemover 2.0 will soon show up. No, it's not a thrill ride, but it always felt thousands of times more futuristic than those unnecessarily loud Rocket Rods.
