>>722990716 >>722991119 is right and the only correct and explicit answer here. There are no more proper racing games because car culture in general completely vanished from the collective society's conscience. Back in the 2000s, even the most uninterested normies could tell you a thing or two about cars, based off their varying degree of exposure to car related content (either from video games, magazines, commercials, TV and other media). Back then, automotive shit was just being pushed abundantly, which almost made it seem like an universal interest which both casuals and hardcores could get into, on a larger scale (like sports for example). So that was good enough leverage for all sorts of dev studios to pump out games based on this premise, and still find a solid playerbase (not entirely comprised of just enthusiasts). You could ask any normie that was a teen back then, about these games, and he'll most likely bring up having fond memories of the time he spent on a NFS or a GT, or maybe even Midnight Club.
But with time, that sentiment sort of faded away. Car shit is not being marketed anymore, it's not cool anymore, it's only the enthusiasts left with the lingering passion from years ago.
And all of this segues perfectly into what
>>722991602 mentioned. The shift in the mindset behind the gaming industry. Being almost exclusively money driven and corporatised. Less interested people = less chance of purchases = no reason to pump money into such a project. It's just a very unfortunate chain of events which led to this.
