I have really fond memories of the first Grid game from 2008. That’s alongside NFS: Most Wanted from around that time, likw most people it seems, haha! I also spent an inordinate amount of time playing Gran Turismo 3: A-spec. I loved the career mode so much.
My favorite cars are the Lotus Espirit and Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR, to this day, because of Gran Turismo 3 and Most Wanted, respectively.
There haven’t been many recently that have piqued my interest, other than the gang all wanting to get Forza Horizon. I don’t play it much on my own, though.
If there were another track game where you work up from the bottom with a shit car in different classes of races, earning money and unlocking new parts and stuff along the way, I’d be into it. It seems most newer racing games just have generic “Engine Upgrade 1”-type options, or full-blown sim where you’re picking extremely particular individual pieces and tuning everything to an overwhelming degree.