There's only a couple of things that holds PC2 back from being the ne plus ultra of racing games, IMHO...
First, and probably the main thing, is the lack of friendliness towards noob players. I can't tell you how many of my GT6/GTS 'Friends' tried out the demo, spent most of their time spinning off in the first laps or two, and went running back to Momma, tail between their legs! The fact is, give it a LOT of time, it is little harder than GTS. But SMS's default tunes with a few notable exceptions, suck! The difference in ease of driving for a well tuned car compared to SMS's default tunes is night and day. I truly believe that if SMS simply copied some of the better tunes from TT rooms (not the fastest, still need to leave a BIT of room for improvement!) and made them the default tunes, initial impressions would be far more favorable.
SMS could also provide a track temperature 'Wizard' for those that want it. Tire pressures are another critical aspect of ease of handling that makes initial playing very unforgiving. They have a 'Race Engineer' section that helps a BIT with tuning (although it needs considerable improvement), but there is nothing in-game that helps at all with tire pressures. For the beginner player (or just the casual one), somewhere you could inform the game about track temps (or have it taken from the game data) and it sets a more controllable tire pressure would once again make PC2 less of a 'try it and bin it' experience for most coming into it from other more arcadey games like GTS and Forza.
And all this results in this, possibly the most damaging and hard to overcome aspect holding PC2 back...
The fractured player base. Play GTS/GT6, or Forza, you are playing EVERYONE that is playing the game. Play iRacing, you are playing EVERYONE. Lobbies are full, races are abundant, tons of online choice. Play PC2 on a console, you are playing, at best, 25% of the player base. Even your leaderboards only show your platform's times. Now add in the unnecessarily high noob challenge, and top it off with the game already only have a fraction of GT or Forza's player base, it is a recipe for failure.
If SMS want to successfully scavenge GT or Forza's player base, yes, I understand there is little yet they can do about making the game cross-platform. But that makes having the game hold the hand of the console players that are trying to migrate from less complex to master games even MORE critical. Few GT or Forza players are going to spring for a fatboy gaming PC with a monster graphics card if they are playing on a PS4/XBone because of budget! SMS are going to have to hold these players' hands and ease them into PC2. And sadly, from pretty much everything I read at PC2's forum and site, they are too elitist to do that. They WANT the best sim, they WANT it to be hard. they WANT to feel 'special'.
Trouble is, on consoles, with barely 25% of the player base, being 'special' is killing the game. What's the point of the best sim, if you have the least opponents?
The only thing keeping me from binning the game at the moment and going back to Gran Turismo is the AI. WAY faster than GT, way faster than ME, LOL (which I can't say that about GT!). But to watch SMS shoot themselves in the foot trying to be too elitist for console players is painful! The improvements to make PC2 more initially well set up would not remove a single hardcore element from the game. Do your own tune, set your own tire pressures, tweak your own FFB - knock yourself out!
But you never get a second chance at a first impression. Offering close to optimal tunes and tire pressures to new players would, IMHO, go a LONG way to keeping them playing.
How is that a bad thing?
PC2 rules the roost with track and car selection, AI, and depth of real life racing detail. But is struggling, especially on consoles. This could so easily be fixed. I guess we will see if SMS want to.
