http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33005
--- Comment #4 from Jarkko K jarkko_korpi@hotmail.com --- Interesting.
I read some other thread which gave me an idea to change windows from xp to 98. I did that and I got an error dialog that the game cannot be run on this windows (don't remember the exact words). Meantime the console shows different error than before.
err:module:attach_process_dlls "PROTECT.DLL" failed to initialize, aborting err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"C:\Program Files\Codemasters\DiRT Demo\DiRTDemo.exe" failed, status c0000142
If I remember right that protect is exactly some protection scheme.
http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3260