Motorola RAZR V3(?) backing up contacts

iSync isn't a phone backup tool. It is for syncing contacts (or a subset of them) from Address Book and particular Calendars from iCal.

If you want to do a backup of your phones contacts you would have to consult your phones manual on how to do this as the process is different from phone-to-phone. Some have backup functions built-in, some you send contacts via Bluetooth, some you need extra software.

A program called "GSM Remote" can read many phones address books, and may do what you want.

However, in looking at the iSync online doc they specifically talk about connecting to mobile phones, and to the Razr specifically. It does recognize the device.

Yes, your phone will sync with iSync, but iSync is not a backup program. It is for syncing contacts and calendars.

Backing up and syncing are different.

Backing up is just a one-way transfer of data for archival purposes.

Syncing is a two-way bi-directional transfer of data which keeps your Mac and phone up-to-date no matter where you make changes or additions to your contacts and calendars.

any way to tell iSync to grab the contacts from the SIM card

No, you'll need to move all your contacts from the SIM card into the phone memory to use iSync. iSync cannot communicate with the SIM card. The phone memory is much better for storing your contacts in anyway, as it allows a lot more data per contact (multiple phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, notes etc.)

it puts those 2 into the general "All" group and not into the specific contact group I specified.

That's correct. Any new contacts transferred FROM the phone TO the Mac will be put into the "All" group in Address Book.

The Address Book group you select in iSync is the group that syncs FROM the Mac TO the phone.