They chose to play the way they did. Question for you, did you ever watch the video that was posted of their play? Just curious...
Your GT example is a GREAT one, so consider this scenario. At the GT Olympics, you are not sure if you want to win your current race because of where it would land you in the knockout races. Let's say you are racing on Nurburgring and all racers have signed a document outlining the rules with a similar clause requiring your best efforts at all times.
Instead of a time around 7 minutes that you had achieved in your prior round robin races (a very good time for the car you were using), in the race you were trying to lose, your time was over 16 minutes. You lost by nearly 10 minutes and your time was last by an enormous margin. You..
-Yanked the handbrake while at full speed and deliberately spun out off the track 14 times
-On four occasions you braked all the way down to ZERO mph on a normally fast straightaway. It is unconfirmed, but some fans reported you saying "where's the turn? Isn't there an apex nearby?" while sitting motionless on the track for 15-20 seconds.
- 6 times after a crash, you turned around and drove the wrong way on the track for anywhere between 30 seconds and a minute. Each time you said "Ooops!" and eventually turned around
-You took the last 11 turns driving backwards, and crossed the line in reverse as well
The referee paused the race with his all powerful pause button halfway through the violations above, warning you your actions were in violation. You proceeded to continue with your poor decisions, racking up the second half of the actions listed above after the warning.
When the race concludes, You get DQ'd from the event. While claiming over and over you were a "Victim" and were just doing what "humans" do when faced with the same choice, the entire collective Gran Turismo world splits their sides open laughing at you.
Storl and Majewski blowing it up right now. 
