Most basic thing is to group them into authority sites, niche sites, forums etc.
If you see other niche / small sites in top 3 then it gives a good indication you might be able to rank.
You also need to look at the metrics of the sites - PA/DA/referring links and so on.
Looks like pretty tough competition. What is the search volume?
it should be doable. I would be comparing every detail of my page / site to that Amazon review site, that will hopefully give you some pointers.
60500 US searches, long tail pro gave it 34 avg, but that is crap, because the review site in the top 10 has a pbn with at least 4 web 2.0s with 100 unique domains as a tier 2, spun content. I could do the same I suppose. I have 22 web 2.0 pbn now, but not many tier links behind them.
I have created my site very similar, but I overlook the review pages that link to the main page, so I've created 7 in the last few days, contextual link back to the main review page.
There are other similar keywords with 6600 US searches, looks lower competition, I've got 5 web 2.0s links to that and 12 to the main keyword.
Sounds good. Maybe you just need to power up those Web 2.0 that you have, same as your competitor has done.
And yes, I think the way they have laid out their site is probably key - sounds like their structure is providing more juice to their ranking page.
I'm trying to rank for 170 US monthly searches is it worth my time?