My guess would be the target audience. CMR, then Dirt games (but not Dirt Rally 1 & 2) were targeted for casual gamers, with more arcade driving model. Only a y

My guess would be the target audience. CMR, then Dirt games (but not Dirt Rally 1 & 2) were targeted for casual gamers, with more arcade driving model. Only a year later, Richard Burns Rally has been released, which is considered a simulator and to this day there's a very active community of simrally drivers playing it. Hardware got improved a lot, that's true, but simulators existed even in 90's - see: Grand Prix Legends.