That's why steering lock is more limited, not steering wheel range. You don't have to make a longer steering rack to get more rotations to the steering wheel, you can use a smaller pinion gear (assuming rack and pinion steering). The rack stays the same length, the steering lock is unaffected, but the steering wheel can rotate more or less depending on the gearing of the rack and pinion. And that's a compromise that takes into consideration track conditions (faster steering can be beneficial on a very twisty track), driver preference, and effort needed to actually turn the wheel (which depends on the type or even lack of power steering available). Lets say our racing car has a maximum steering lock of 20 degrees. Without touching the length of the steering rack you can make that happen with 270 degrees (6.75 ratio gearing for the pinion), or 1080 degrees (27 ratio gearing for the pinion).
Yes, but I can't imagine driving modern GT or OW racing car with steering ratio like from a vintage road car
I can't either, but that's beside the point. =) As far as I understand modern OW cars usually run steering ratios around 10-12:1, which is actually on par or even slower than some road cars (well OK, the only road car I can come up with that has faster steering is the Caterham Seven, but still ).
I drove happily Formula 2 with 900 degrees until I realized that I had forgotten to change steering of my wheel, again. After changing it was bit more difficult to drive.