OK, as my words don't really sound convincing to you, I decided to go do some sightseeing.
LAGUNA SECA DRAG STRIP #1 - TO THE FAR NORTH OF THE TRACK
Let's start with the more famous one, which can be seen if you get the red dot to the upper side of the screen.
Before we start, one thing:
Note that when we start going north, the closest part of the track to us is Rahal Straight. That's rather important, I'll explain why later.
At this point camera starts going banana.
Aaaaand here we are!
...are we?
Nope. When you get closer to the "drag strip", it disappears...
...and reappears.
...and again.
...and again.
...AND AGAIN.
So it keeps reappearing multiple times more. However, each time it lets you get closer to it.
This is the last time we see the "drag strip" before a long gap; here it lets you get close enough to it to see the wall and trees near it rather clearly.
Note that it's not too far from the border where camera positioning malfunctions.
After said long gap, the "drag strip" comes again, now ready to slap you in the face with reality.
Here we got close to it again; we can see the same wall and trees placed along it.
Now we are are ready to get aboard the "drag strip". BUT. See where the red dot is?
...well, yes. It really is the corner before Rahal Straight.
LAGUNA SECA DRAG STRIP #2 - TO THE WEST OF THE TRACK
I'll keep this one short because, as we can get almost inside of it, all we need to do is a small comparison.
Here's the beginning of the supposed "drag strip".
(there's not much of it "remaining" besides this corner and the straight itself; I'll also get to it later)
Here's the last corner of Laguna Seca before the finish line. Spot 10 differences.
Now, let me explain why we only see Rahal Straight in the first case and only the last corner in the second one:
The game only keeps around 0.75 km of the track's driveable geometry in its memory. It usually loads chunks of driveable road according to the car's position, even when you get out of boundaries.
But it's possible to break this algorithm, right on this track: when you get out of track's boundaries, follow the track to Andretti Hairpin and then go straight to the corner to the north of it.
Because you didn't follow track's contour and got to the corner without of loading the gap between it and Andretti Hairpin into memory (you still have Andretti Hairpin loaded in the memory, remember?), the game won't load the road at the corner and you won't get forced back to the track.
upd:
I was right.
If you go out of boundaries and go north from Andretti Hairpin's side, the game will load Andretti Hairpin's geometry instead of Rahal Straight's.
