I have question...

I can only speak for me. But it's a combination of things: 'famous' mods like DRM Revival have well-calibrated and detailed physics and/or 3D models (whereas many mods don't), the cars are often challenging (and thus rewarding) to drive (e.g. DRM with huge turbos), I think real world cars like Group 5 Group C and historic CART are bad-ass, plus it's a chance to immerse yourself in a bygone historical era by experiencing a little of it yourself and learn about history.
 
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Why do people love old movies, or books, or music, or TV shows.

But for me part of the appeal of older series is a greater degree of immersion. These are cars and tracks and people and times I remember, or have read about extensively. Over the past twenty-five years I have lost interest in the major professional level race series; F1, NASCARE, "Indycar", are each just a step from spec racer status. "Indycar" now barely qualifies as open-wheel or open cockpit; NASCARE is merely a marketing circus; F1 is secretive, arrogantly elitist, run by a dictator, and is not going to any track that doesn't have a five-star hotel/casino complex within walking distance. I find a weekend at an SCCA or vintage event much more enjoyable than anything these three now offer, and this is reflected in my favorite simracing mods. In the US GT racing, under whatever acronym it now runs, gets so little coverage that it's difficult to get involved in a sim version.

Not to say I don't enjoy an occasional modern F1 or GT sim race, but it might as well be racing spaceships through an asteroid belt for all the immersion I feel.
 
Why do people love old movies, or books, or music, or TV shows.

But for me part of the appeal of older series is a greater degree of immersion. These are cars and tracks and people and times I remember, or have read about extensively. Over the past twenty-five years I have lost interest in the major professional level race series; F1, NASCARE, "Indycar", are each just a step from spec racer status. "Indycar" now barely qualifies as open-wheel or open cockpit; NASCARE is merely a marketing circus; F1 is secretive, arrogantly elitist, run by a dictator, and is not going to any track that doesn't have a five-star hotel/casino complex within walking distance. I find a weekend at an SCCA or vintage event much more enjoyable than anything these three now offer, and this is reflected in my favorite simracing mods. In the US GT racing, under whatever acronym it now runs, gets so little coverage that it's difficult to get involved in a sim version.

Not to say I don't enjoy an occasional modern F1 or GT sim race, but it might as well be racing spaceships through an asteroid belt for all the immersion I feel.
Why people love old track mod.
 
Why people love old track mod.
If you mean historic tracks in general... immersion when racing historic cars. Because historic cars are meant to race at historic tracks of their era. For example, there's nothing more cursed than running a 60s F1 car around a modern-day F1 circuit (except perhaps running a modern F1 car around a 60s circuit :p).

If you mean why people like track mods made years and years ago:
  1. Some of them are really well done and still hold up today (especially in older sims). Take Virtua_LM's version of Mid Ohio. It is not laserscanned, but it is remarkably close to reality considering that fact. Plus it is a well-modeled track (objects, textures, road surface) – at least to the standards of the sims it was made for like rF1 or GTR2.
  2. Some historic tracks mods (often mods for older sims from the past) offer experiences no other mods do. Take the Targa team's recreation of the entire 1960s Targa Florio circuit, or Jim Pearson's painstakingly modeled and textured version of the Isle of Man Snaefell Mountain circuit – both for Grand Prix Legends. Or carrera4's trackpack for the entire 1988 F1 season. Or Virtua_LM's Le Mans and Sebring. There's a reason you see conversions of these in every sim out there... for years, they've been the only track mods able to simulate that era of the track in question!
  3. Nostalgia. Many people will have played for hours and hours years ago on those old track mods.
 
Why people love old track mod.
Many reasons. I like fast open road courses, probably my favorite is "Spa67"; long fast straights, broad sweeping turns, hairpins, S curves, chicanes, elevation changes ...it has it all. Compare that to what passes for Spa today.

Looking at modern F1 tracks, they are all flat, bland, featureless squiggles; mostly medium rpm, medium gear turns connected by short straights, surrounded by such huge runoff areas that spectators need binoculars. Any older tracks on which F1 still runs have been castrated by chicanes thrown in ever couple of hundred yards. Monza, once known as a high speed track, ruined by chicanes; nothing remains of the great Hockenheim but a little club circuit; Suzuka had a great flow til the addition of that horrid Casio chicane; the most egregious example being that "chicane of the month" track - Silverstone:

Evolution_of_Silverstone_Grand_Prix_Circuit_1949_to_present.png

From 1949 til 1975 a great track, then the ruination began. F1 boasts of the world's fastest cars ....why don't they want to race anywhere that lets us see that.

Another reason for old tracks is that many great circuits no longer exist - Kyalami, Riverside, Bridgehampton, Keimola, etc.; and many races, like Spa, were held on public roads, which still exist... but not for racing. But in sims we can still experience the original Brno, Targa Florio, Rouen, Solitude, Dundrod.

Many "old" tracks are still in use; rather than the uninspired modern F1/GT tracks, give me Road America (aka Elkhart Lake, unchanged since built in 1955), Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park, Mosport, Brands Hatch.....
 
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.... For example, there's nothing more cursed than running a 60s F1 car around a modern-day F1 circuit (except perhaps running a modern F1 car around a 60s circuit :p).
...
Actually that's much of the enjoyment of sims for me. F1 refuses to run at Mid-Ohio or Laguna Seca or Road America ...but in my world they do. How would a Lamborghini perform at Bridgehampton? Or a McLaren at the original Sachsenring? I've even run NASCARE at Nurburgring, and a 500 mile F1 race at Talledega.

True, many vintage cars do not perform well at modern tracks, particularly F1 tracks, because they were not designed for the tight claustrophobic "arena circuits" so popular today.
 
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