To be fair, it didn't exactly have strong competition.
-EA FC 24: Yearly football game that (as far as I can tell) isn't too different from previous installments, and has micro-transactions out the wazoo.
-F1 23: Yearly F1 game, which by default makes it only appealing to a niche within a niche as far as audience goes, even if it's been well-reviewed.
-Hot Wheels 2: I legit forgot that this game even came out. HW2 looks to have gotten good reviews, but it wasn't drastically different from the first game, and it seems like it never gained any momentum after launch. It feels like there was legitimately no marketing for this game whatsoever.
-The Crew Motorfest: A very pretty, broken mess of a game, that in a lot of ways is very much worse than its predecessor. I'd say that it's in a similar boat to Forza currently, just in different ways.
I'm certain that at least some recency bias is at play, but while FM23 absolutely has issues, the core of the game (the actual driving/racing) is legit good, and I feel does a lot more to at least attempt appealing to a wider audience. The game just needs all the other things surrounding its core to be addressed, and with any luck it'll be much more appealing in the long run.
Also, there is a rather shocking number of people on other parts of the net that are taking issue with FM23 winning the accessibility award. Like, the game legit gives
blind people the tools to enjoy racing, but some can't help but to take rather toxic issue with it.