Finished the single-player today and I gotta say as a GT fan, it got tiring by the end mainly because I was willing to admit they haven't evolved one bit, gameplay wise. By Menu 39 I was so sick and tired of rolling starts and first place drivers having an even bigger advantage. Its chase the carrot game, its not rubber-banding bad but its close. The reason why they give you 5 or 7 laps is because they know it will take you that long to catch up. If you drive perfectly, you will catch up to the first driver about one lap before the last. Otherwise its going to be neck and neck.
At least for Championships they could of implemented the qualifying system from GTS. So that you could actually start from a grid place that isnt fucking last every time. Especially towards the end its like every track had 5-7 laps and in my mind i was like fuck...here we go, another 15 minutes on one track. Also what is showing its age, RALLY. For a game that strives for realism, this is not how you drive a Rally race, you go one by one and then the timestamps are measured and preferably a point A to B travel, not 5 laps. DIRT has it but its an arcade, party dude bro exhibition rally. Also its laughable that those orange plastic fences are as strong as a concrete wall. There has been jsut too many other games that made me realize how backwards some GTs ideas are.