1. A vehicle environment recognizing apparatus comprising: an image capturing device configured to capture an image of a road on which a vehicle is traveling; a road shape calculating section configured to calculate approximation lines that approximate a shape of the road in at least two regions that are located at different distances in front of the vehicle based on image data captured by the image capturing device; and a straight road determining section configured to determine whether the road on which the vehicle is traveling is straight based on a degree to which the approximation lines of the regions calculated by the road shape calculating section match one another.