I'm coming out and saying that I liked the first in this series, I really did, and I liked Vin Diesel too so there. Okay so it helped if you liked fast cars too, but it was still an okay film. I've never seen the second but have heard not so good things about it, however the premise for the third does sound like they're trying to inject new life into the series, from Coming Soon:

The story focuses on Shaun Boswell, a loner at school, whose only connection to the world is his passion for illegal street racing. To avoid jail time, he is sent to live in Japan with his uncle in the military in a cramped apartment in a low-rent section of Tokyo. There he becomes involved in drift racing and unwittingly takes on DK, the Drift King, who has ties to the Yakuza.

It will be directed by Justin Lin who has been noticed for his movie Better Luck Tomorrow. Although he's not directed that much he certainly has caught peoples attention with this one, and he's caught them big time since he's also assisted in the rewrites for and will direct the OldBoy remake. Now there's a good choice.