Forza 3 adds 2 real worth tracks (Le Sarthe and Cata). It adds several (epic) fantasy tracks. It adds several new cars that depending on your point of view are pretty rare/unique in racing games. I don't know many other games with the Pontiac Firebird, or BMW M1.
TOCA 3 had both, if I remember correctly. Though it might be some other Pontiac, like a bonneville or something. Doesn't REALLY matter.
It's still 4 year old hardware. Optimisation only gets you so far, you've still only got 48 shader pipes at 500mhz. You're still dealing with GPUs that are 4 generations old, from the dawn of the unified shader era. PC Sims... you're saying that every single PC sim currently available is better than Forza 3?
Not at all. Rather, that it's not really all that smart to compare the visuals of something that developers only have to optimize and create for ONCE to something that they have to make work on everything released over the last 3 or so years. That makes A LOT of difference, in develoment time, development strategy, content, and quality.
But it's not like they aren't working around it; I can't remember who it was (ID I think), but they're pushing forward with megatexutres to combat that problem; 128000x128000 bitmaps apparently work more efficiently, allowing more massive textures, more detail, etc.
I know how to google. I'm questioning why you think the game is drastically inferior because the developer decided to provide the community tools and storage space themselves?
It's drastically inferior because they HAD to do this. Even without a truly official forum/area, GTR2 has more online support, custom skins, downloadable content, help and a much better community than anything on XBOX EVER will. The community should be responsible for this, and it's truly an enthusiasts community as a result, which I believe is much, much better for it.
I have gimp and use it regularly for work. On my computer. Which is not my xbox. So in your world the requirements for someone to use the livery editor on their xbox game is to buy a pc, download Gimp, learn to use it, find a place online to host their files, find the community website, sign up, all so that noone else in an online lobby can see what you've done? Unless of course you link them to your files, they download them, put them in the right folder, etc etc? What you've suggested seems to be a pretty similar learning curve for the average user as just pasting circles and triangles.
Really?
Here is the car and track list for Live for Speed. IT does not contain several years of DTM, V8 Supercars, BTCC and WTCC, GT500 and GT300. It doesn't even contain real cars. Here is the car list for iRacing. It doesn't have all the things you spoke of either. I haven't owned or even played rFactor, so I don't know what it has.
Try one of the ISI-based games (which you haven't played).
Actually, just have a quick browse through the mods for GTR2 at nogrip. You should probably add several tiers of Nascar to that list, as well.
LFS, is always just 'original' cars. iRacing is in it's infancy.
I assume by GMOD you mean Garry's mod. To compare a PC FPS mod to a retail console racing game is pretty ridiculous. There are a plethora of reasons why mods are impractical on consoles. I doubt you will ever see it happen. So console games have only what the devs provide. Turn 10 provides a storefront that noone else has attempted, that replicates and in some ways improves on what is available in the PC User Content space, and you say it sucks. That's also ridiculous.
I'm comparing game modes. I don't care if I have to download them. They are separate modes of play, with new mechanics and are different, out of the ordinary, etc. For whatever reason other games can't match this, I simply don't care. I'm not going to say it's great...for a 360 game. I'm going to say what it is compared to the benchmark, full stop. No conceded passes, no excuses.
If you have to add...for a (whatever) to quantify something, it's not really all that good in the scheme of things, is it?
Which brings me to my last point. Your cop-out argument of "you clearly only know things about console racing, and nothing of PC racing." is pretty rude, presumptuous and wrong. I have owned and played Life for Speed (S1) and played GTR Evo. I didn't really stick with either of them for too long, for various reasons. Life for Speed didn't have enough variety and Evo has a bizarre incompatibility with my sound card that crashes too much for me to put up with. Life for Speed is still installed though and we break it out regularly at LANs. I played iRacing at a friends and was interested, until I looked at the pricing structure.
At the end of the day, in my purchase, I did compare Forza to PC sims. The physics isn't quite up there with PC games. The graphics aren't as good as some modern PC sims. But there is so much more content, so much more races to be done with friends, so many different things to do, and just more fun to be had. And, it was easier; no install, no driver tweaking, no file copying. That's entirely subjective, of course, but that's how I feel. That doesn't give you the right to say my opinion is worthless because I don't play PC sims as much as you do.
), the fact is; all they're doing is evolutionary.
), but lifted of wikipedia 
Anyway, Forza 3 the game, not the demo, feels like it's square in the middle of Live For Speed, GTR, Toca and Prologue. Well, and Forza 2, it's definitely a Forza game, but the warts from Forza 2 do seem to have been ironed out, and it seems way more bug free. It does look like T10 finally did their homework and gave us a Forza that feels simmish the way Prologue does. And that livery editor is just awesome. The tire samples still make me cringe, though. 
