I was running Project CARS this weekend where I ran Le Mans, Imola and Sonoma and at all the tracks, the AI was all over the place...spinning out, brake checking, cutting tracks and so on. It got me thinking that it would be nice if the you the player and the AI had to adhere to track penalties. So if the AI cut the track, they would suffer a slow down penalty or if there was contact, you/they would have a 30 second pit penalty. I know P CARS has penalties in place but I've never ran a race where they were enforced. It would be cool to see a car that cut the track, give back the position, then go back to racing you hard. Just like Iracing does with online racing, it would be nice if we had similar AI rules. I think it would help to make the experience more real by introducing consequences.
In one very funny case, I ran an AI race at the Nurburgring in A/C last week and ended up crashing out. I knew that there was one car left that hadn't passed me after my crash but I couldn't figure out what happened to him; So I waited for him on the side of the track. This AI car had run the entire length of the 'ring in the grass. He got up to my car and ran straight into me where he then continued on his way...in the grass. I thought that was just hilarious.but totally unacceptable at the same time.
Being an admittedly average driver, it is nice when I race AI that provides me with a racing challenge without the arcade madness. Yes having cars flying all over the place might provide for a thrilling gaming experience, but for those of us who want to simulate as much of an authentic race as we can get, having bad AI can be really frustrating. Understanding that all sims handle AI differently, on different tracks, for me the best sims are those that have tried to reduce the amount of arcade craziness and focus on racecraft, ie the racing line, speed and clean passing.
I think rFactor2 and RaceRoom have the best AI, with A/C being close for the most part.. I haven't tried GSCE yet but I here it has good AI too. Project CARS is like Forza or DriveClub, very arcade like...fun no doubt, but I don't take the AI racing very serious.
At the end of the day, I accept the AI for what it is. I try to set the difficulty levels to a point where I have to work to keep up but not win nor get left behind. And as I have said before, I do my best to treat the AI as I would any online racer by concentrating on driving fast and clean while trying to avoid contact with them.