Personally though, I’m not looking for a “game”, I’m looking to recreate the history of motorsport and insert myself in that history to get a sense of what it was like, and immerse myself in both the era and the competition. I can say I never get tired of this. There are so many eras and classes, there are a couple I come back to more than others (60’s/90’s F1, BTCC in the VRC cars, 1970-ish lemans/icm, 2000 GT1, early DTM) and with so many more series to create I can’t see myself getting bored.
F1 was never broadcasted properly in Finland, not even after Keke won the 1982 championship. We got regular broadcasts only in the 90's Hakkinen era.
I'm too young to remember the eighties properly but I remember some occasional televised F1 races which were just so amazing. Biggest influence was my older brother (now 55) who always talked about Keke, Nigel, Niki, Elio... I watched those old races when I was 5 years old in total awe with my brother whenever they got televised. Sparks, crashes, the tracks and pitlanes where you could almost smell the motor oil even through the TV screen. Now I have watched all those races many times as I have every race 1979-2007 in my portable drive.
The drivers were full of mystique and they actually drove those very dangerous and primitive cars. In the mid 80's those cars had over 1000 hp, even close to 1400 hp in the QF trim. I'm sure today's drivers are just as skillful and perhaps even more so, but looking at these mad machines (and regular 1-2 deaths per season)... you'd think today's drivers would ever agree to drive these absolutely insane cars?
Sure the Hakkinen-Schumacher era was great but for me it never had the same mystique anymore. Perhaps it had something to do with that seeing F1 races was so rare before and every time it was an unique experince when they got televised. Now you saw them all every other weekend and those drivers become much more mainstream. Hakkinen advertised Mercedes-Benzes on TV and Schumi was in the L'Oreal advertisements and all that.
To me the 80's and early 90's was something "larger than life" and still is. And think about the quality of the grid. In 1985 there was 7 world champions (past or present) plus solid drivers like Berger, Arnoux and Elio which anyone could win in a given day. And guys like Lauda who was a synonymous to "hardcore racer". Now the drivers look more or less like boy band members and to me the whole sport has become so sterile. I watch the races but I can't get passionate about the sport anymore.
Me and me brother always talked about "how amazing it would be to have a proper 80's F1 simulator". Sure we had that EA 2002 F1 game which had those old skins, we had RF1 too which was kinda revolution. But they were still lacking in so many ways. Like I said before, AC was the first platform that made it possible to "relive" this era in believable fashion. Well RF2 of course too, but I never liked that game so much. The worst thing about it is the menu system which is horrendous.
But how big percentage this older gaming crowd is, if you look at the big picture? Probably not that significant. At least not from commercial point of view. Majority of guys in their 20s and 30s love their Nissan Skylines and old Beemers.... tuning their street cars I think. I have ZERO interest in that. Well maybe not zero as I go and have a drift sometimes with the E30 too... it's fun but it's a still completely different gaming interest.
I believe quite a big percentage of "harcore" AC gamers are guys in their 40's like me or even older who love the historical part of the sport and AC has offered a perfect platform to "recreate" it. But it absolutely requires total freedom of creating things. If this will be removed AC1 will never be "replaced" I think. It has become an "gaming encyclopedia" of Motorspots in many ways.
I think that's what Scott is trying to say too. But personally I think we're just a small group of classic racing fanatics, not significant crowd from the commercial point of view. Not so big percentage of AC drivers even have patience or interest to drive full seasons I think.
And besides the outlap/blue flag issues in AI and some occasional stupid ai pitting there aren't that many flaws or something that I absolutely NEED ACE to have. Perhaps the ACE team is not even trying to put AC1 in the history books and the new product will just live side by side with the old. Who knows. Perhaps some crazy modders are even able to PORT AC1 mods to the new game?