"People who are autistic obsessively putting in thousands of laps in before a race" So... Formula One in the early 2000s then? With Ferrari turning thousands of laps at Fiorano to get the car ready for the next round. And exploits- That's what Roger Penske is always doing, Mercedes with their wheel rims, McLaren with the F-Duct, Brawn's Double Diffuser. It's the same stuff, just in a game.
@AMillward I suspect the cut tracks may not be allowed in real racing qualifications or races like they are in Sim racing. The other physics based exploits are more software and programming related. But I see your point about the real drivers using anything they can get away with to shave 10ths off their times.
VEC has the same track limits warnings at Silverstone that they have in F1. Go over the curb at Copse and time is invalidated. But then, the best drivers will know how much they can get away with, as a computer is deciding rather than a man in a control room.
People should really get over the notion of flattening the field to suit their inability to be the fastest. Do we really want socialism in simracing? I'm a middle of the pack guy (maybe slightly faster than that at times) and to me it's simple - the fair game is: who's fastest, should win (excluding being a dick and ramming people off the track). Now if that involves doing 1000's of laps, be my guest. Everyone can do it and I think as with any other sport discipline if you put in the hours you can get the rewards. Nothing wrong about this, quite the contrary. I hate those lazy people complaining that someone has done the hard work that they don't give a flying f**k to do themselves and feel entitled to be able to compete on the same level. Grow some balls guys! As @AMillward rightly pointed out the same happens in real world racing so just get over it. Austin Ogonski is a professional moaner and complainer, he once had a blog committed to that very purpose. He has a lot of opinions, but that's what they are - opinions (mostly controversial and often not very well founded). EDIT: also putting a lot of time in training and burning the track into your memory makes everyone much safer during the race. Since being in a competitive field is a chaotic business it's much more likely to take each other out in the heat of the moment when you're just slightly familiar with a given track.
What you're proposing is basically punishing people who are either faster than you or more willing to put in the hours in actual training. Not very sportsmanshippy if u ask me.