Do they though? Kids these days are in a different world to where we were in 1997. Very young children know how cars work at a basic level, and Gran Turismo is also not the only kid on the block any more.Gran Turismo is also for kids. Stop that egocentricity where only you exist, the tests work because they teach basic concepts that are universal, a kid and old people can learn how to brake or whatever.
What do you think the license tests teach them that they couldn't learn by going out on a track with a virtual instructor, for example? The 0-1000m stopping tests don't teach them much about braking, they just have you learn where you need to press the button so you stop in the right place. The trial and error of doing that doesn't teach them how to anticipate braking strength for different corners. It doesn't tell you what happens when you brake while turning, or any other useful information.
The cornering tests, go around X corner in under 16.100 seconds. That might eventually start to teach people the out-in-out principle but again, why couldn't you do that on a circuit, so you're constantly taking different corners in a flowing manner, rather than trying to find the trick to get from your 16.202 time?
I had the same problem with circuit experience in GTS. You can spend so much time perfecting the 2nd or 3rd sector by the time you come to do the full lap you've forgotten how to take the first sector. If you were just tasked with lapping consistently, with no breaks, it'd be a lot more intuitive.
Then you have the 'racecraft' tests which say you must overtake 3 cars in 5 corners to get 'gold'. What is that teaching? Ram your way through at any costs or you don't win. It doesn't teach setting an overtake up, forcing the car ahead into an error, etc.
There are countless better ways to teach people than what PD came up with 25 years ago. It was great then, not so much now.
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