A wheel on my lap is just as uncomfortable as keyboard and mouse on the couch. Racing games managed perfectly fine with a controller in the past, dunno why they got so inept at tuning the controls for a controller nowadays. It's a PC game though, which explains a lot. (eg HUD elements right at the edge slightly sticking out over the black borders of my projection screen and small font which is hard to read on TV) Anyway regardless of controls, driving isn't as fun as it should be. I'll give it more time though, see if it gets better in more modern cars.

The timing of the co-driver isn't bad, it's just that he gives too much information at times. upto 4 turns ahead with multiple crests, up down jump maybe, and obstacles inside and outside for each little bend. Memorizing a 12 item list while driving isn't my strong point. I had a glitch too, the game suddenly reset me while I was still on the road, 12 sec penalty for no reason.

Btw if fps was only tuned for kb+mouse only, they would be niche too.
I'll give the next PC port a miss. There's more to porting to consoles than what Project Cars and Dirt Rally think of it.
Actually nm that last bit, Trackmania Turbo is fantastic on consoles with tons of personality and responsive controls.

Project cars has the same problem with gamepad controls. Offer a ton of settings, as in figure it out yourself. Yet all the settings are simple sliders and don't address the real problem. You simply don't feel all that much in touch with the car. Driving in both games goes best through careful nudges of the stick, not by keeping hold of the stick at all times. That's what I mean with that it's not that much fun to drive.

I'll try the better cars anyway. If I would judge DriveClub on the hot hatch class only it would be a 5 for me. All the depth and rewarding gameplay is in the higher classes. It's just not Colin McRae on PS2 where I could start in my favourite Subaru Impreza WRX and get to sliding around corners.

It's not all doom and gloom on controllers. GT does a great job and I played GT5 for months online and got the platinum trophy for GT6. It is possible to make a great sim like experience for a controller. Just Project cars and Dirt Rally fail to translate the controls properly.

No need to put down arcade racers either with constant winning. You try to get to elite level 60 in DriveClub and tell me it's not exhilirating :) Or setting the best times in Trackmania Turbo with upto a 100 people online (shown as real time ghosts) at the same time. Nevermind the campaign that's very challenging to master. It's a shame the ps4 doesn't have a proper sim racer for controller yet, GT does its usual waiting game. Plus GT sport might only facilitate the downwards decline by narrowing the scope of the franchise.

My first rally game was V-rally on ps1. (Actually Paris Dakar on PC in 1990, but that's so old) Love it for the fact of instant restarts, was awesome to set best times on with a friend, racing eachother's ghosts. It was accessible yet hard to master. Dirt Rally has this the other way around. For example it would be better if it started you with a modern well behaved car on tarmac championship and go from there. Not in a 1950's more difficult car sliding around in Greece.
Plus the game design is based around negative reinforcement, which might work for some people, yet it's not a very positive way to attract new people. Besides the harsh penalties and limited restarts it also gives frequent jabs like "work up in the championships, until you wish you hadn't". It's no wonder the average cars owned on the racenet site is two. It doesn't help that the tutorials are all non interactive, I guess a limitation from the small budget.

Anyway DiRT strayed from what Rally racing was all about. WRC turned mediocre and made it so easy all the fun left the building. Dirt Rally seems reactionary to the other extreme. Racing is my favorite genre but towards the end of last gen it started to decline. There must be a better option than retreating to wheel controllers and punishing gameplay.

I'll be playing again tonight. I think I already have 160k or so from the first 5 stages. At least it doesn't look like it's going to be a grind fest :)

I respectfully disagree with your opinion that wheels are the only way forward. Wheels have been there before analog controls were even a thing. I remember playing Grand Prix 2 with a wheel. All the things you list can be simulated fine with a controller, partly through audio feedback, well implemented rumble and paying careful attention to the attitude and movement of the car / viewpoint. Which is another problem with Project cars, almost entirely eliminating tire squeel for realism I guess, not realizing that that's the most important feedback when playing with a controller. GT's sound design isn't great yet it does an excellent job in providing information how the car is doing traction wise and the sense of danger losing it is all there. Consistency in winning and AI has nothing to do with controller vs wheel.

I haven't played Asseta Corsa yet though, don't have the PC for it, nor want to sit behind a wheel. It's coming to ps4, yet this time I'll pay careful attention to any reviews mentioning controller support. I now have new found respect for GT and Forza, they know how to make sims fun with a controller.

Just browsed around a bit for controller support on AC, seems it's much better than Project cars at least. Hopefully they don't do the lazy collection of sliders again on console instead of fine tuning it.

I played for almost another 3 hours last night, for that alone it should be a 7/10.

Hill climb has better sense of speed yet it's still pretty floaty feeling, dunno why but the car feels detached from the road. Maybe the muted tire noises. It's missing something which does make it seem a bit like guiding a virtual box around the track or steering a hovercraft more like. Steering could use a bit of range adjustment for high speed so it's easier to make corrections at speed, perhaps it's in the settings. Sensitivity by speed, need to check, didn't notice it before.

I tried the online events yet you can only do them once lol. (Didn't have a car for the others) The first I tried was rally cross, my car went sideways in the first corner and kept sliding sideways along the track. Apparently the AI had hit me and kept pushing me sideways as if I wasn't there until I finally came lose crashed into a wall. Needless to say the car didn't perform very well after that.
Instead I did the rally cross championship offline, it's good as a practice ground to get a feel of the handling. Doing 4 times 4 laps plus another 6 for each event is a bit overkill though.

I tried PVP, there didn't seem to be many people online. The browser only found 2 rooms, 3 players total, auto matchmaking worked better and put me in with 4 to 6 people however they were already racing. Can't join late, I really love that option in Track mania, no waiting around. Anyway finally got in a match, was rally cross again with 5 people, still had to do 3 events, meh.

Back to the meat of the game, completed the first event of the Clubman rally. The game is at it's best on tight winding roads at moderate speed.