>>713217972
>single player racing games are poorly structured where you're expected to finish first in every race
There was a brief period in the late 00s-early 10s when that wasn't necessarily the case. Games like GRID and Pro Street were just fine with you coming not in first, and let you through if you showed consistent enough results. Games prior were still riding the arcade inertia of "everything must be perfect", later games switched to "you deserve to win everything, sweetie!" model, but games from that period had the balance just right where they could afford AI that is neither overbearing nor piss easy.