It's becoming abundantly clear that the original version of RF only progressed as fast as it did, because of modders with knowledge of it's structure.
This seems to be a whole different kettle of fish.
Seems like we've been discussing RF2 for at least four years...maybe more. I know it was at least two before the beta was released.
Anybody remember when the first screenshot was released?
But rF2 isn't a scratch project. Admittedly they seem to have thrown out some rF1 stuff that would have been (and still would be, in some cases) a nice placeholder while they work on the more advanced stuff, but the early screenshots were just using the existing engine (which would have already progressed from rF1 stage due to their own development for commercial projects) with maybe a few things they were testing and aiming to put into rF2.
rF1 wasn't a scratch project either, but I don't know how many fans of F1C etc were hanging around waiting for it while it was being developed - whereas here we have quite a few rF1 fans hanging out for rF2.
Having said all that, I certainly expected a more 'complete' rF2 after around 6 months of beta, with a lot of the more advanced stuff still to be completed/added in the subsequent years. Instead we're only recently getting to a useable state but still with some annoying bugs, so it's starting to feel like we'll have to wait for a lot of the more advanced stuff to be implemented before everything that's in works properly and provides a complete picture. An early example of this was tyre degradation, where rF1's simpler system which at least worked was removed, so for quite a while in rF2 there wasn't any. That hole has now been filled, but there are others.
And I look at it from the other direction - the modders went crazy on rF1 because it used familiar formats etc (to previous ISI titles, and other titles using the gmotor engine), but maybe the reason there appears to be less of a frenzy with rF2 is because there have been, and still are, some bugs that can make 'serious' racing really irritating. So lots of leagues etc are sticking with rF1, reducing the demand for rF2 mods. I certainly think it's more that than people not moving to rF2 because of a lack of mods - considering how much better rF2 already is in several areas, and the variety already available in ISI mods, if it were as robust as rF1 everyone would already be on it and waiting for mods. And that, largely, isn't happening.