This is why I'm somewhat reluctant to call the current class of race titles Sims, their more emulators than simulators due to the fact none truly simulate what the real world of motor racing encompasses.
Damage is a fact of racing, whether it's a simple fender rubbing on a tyre or a major front end crushed with a shattered radiator from a brake fade which resulted in rear ending an opponent, it's not a priority of the Devs, yet they claim their titles are the closest thing to real racing....simulators.
So until a dev can actually reproduce 95% of real life motorsport, which includes car damage affects like many before me have noted in this conversation, I refuse to call them Simulators.
I want realism, as close to actual motorsport as possible, which includes a damage/collision model to panels, mechanical parts and chassis components. As many have said, it has been done in the past in varying degree's in older titles, so what's stopped the current devs from spending the extra time to make the complete racing title today, that we've seen glimpses of in the past?
If one dev stepped up and produced a title that had weather, day/night transition and a half decent collision /damage model, I doubt many of us would race anything else going by the comments so far, I know I wouldn't.
Cheers.