Some of the thoughts on this thread are interesting. Personally I like driving a variety of cars and can get differing enjoyment from driving many of them.
For example I have driven a Jag E Pace recently and have been surprised at the 8 speed ZF box with flappy paddles; it is such a good box and, as the car is not my daily driver, is engaging (familiarity might mean just getting from A to B which it does very well).
That said, I now spend time on simulators. They are getting very good and help improve my driving particularly getting to know new circuits or to look for better lap times. They have now got very accurate models of how many cars perform. Personally I prefer a car to have more oversteer than under and it was interesting when I drove a Caterham Graduate sim round Silverstone. With all the driver aids turned off (it there any other way to drive a sim) It simulates the poor tyres very well and requires you to adapt your driving to get the car turned in, or rotated. If you don’t get the car rotated it understeers and you lose time waiting for the grip to comeback. These are challenges that I do not typically get from road driving.
You can also program how good your robot adversaries are and how aggressive. I have to own that I normally turn damage off so I do not have to visit the pit every lap to get simulated repairs completed.
