I have the same problem when trying to load a replay from the list, it starts to load and then just stops and the only way to get out of it is ctrl-alt-delete. I never had any problems loading replays with the old UI.
older replays, like those prior to January 2021(rough guess on the date) will no longer work. They made some changes to the replay format and the older replays no longer worked with the new UI. The work-around was to use Steam to fall back to an earlier version of rF2, but I think most of the older versions have been dropped so that option may no longer apply. But if this was a code change to allow new features, then there will be no 'fix' for the older replays. HOWEVER, If the replay is fairly recent, then it could be something that S397 needs to look at.
I've deleted all my replays that were created with old UI so I have replays from the new UI only and they will not load. Definitely something S397 needs to sort out.
Sorry. I can watch all the new replays, then i can't help you. It's clear that the problem, with my config, isn't in my side.
same problem here. You try if it work with old ui and replays, so install old ui, than race and save and load? When not, i try this evening, i delete all and install rf2 again, a lot of work, but no help here so far
so, maybe here is the answer. Yesterday i tried all different versions of new ui on steam, no different. "loading replay, please wait", nothing happend. Then i rolled back to the old ui an it worked . But the grafics was so ugly, that i don`t want stand on the old ui without the new shaders and so on, an changed back to the new ui, actually release candidate, tried replay loading and yeah worked also. The loading times are longer, but worked. Looked like the problem was overwritten from the changes good luck.