I wanna point out something else about the visuals.
All those dynamic weather features aren't just eye candy, even if the day is merely overcast, there's real cloud/wind physics at play here with world lighting, so one lap you're racing under clouds and your visibility in a tunnel turn ain't that great. Next lap the sun comes back out and you nail that turn just because it's sunnier... or at least it feels that way. It's sweet.
And for a non-sim, the cars have real distinctive handling. I'm doing the same lap now but some Audi Coupe something, and compared to the Lotus Evora it understeers like a bytch.