i did reinstall both now and i still get crashes, but now i noticed that it only happens after i get into the car and exit by pressing ESC.
after that, there are two things that can happen when i try to click "drive" to get back on the track:
1) the game will freeze the view in the VR headset at random times (during load screen or while driving)... in VR, the screen image keeps shaking violently while frozen... in my monitor, everything looks ok and i can keep playing the game and using the menus just fine... it's like VR is abandoned and nothing i do will get the view unfrozen in the VR headset.
2) the game will freeze momentarily and crash back to windows.
so, i can play the game now, but i restart it (close and open the game) after every time i get out of the car, to make sure it will not happen while driving.