I couldn't agree more about driving games and generally wanting to play the latest and greatest over the classics. With that said, if it's a modified perspective game, like Sega's Turbo, or an overhead racer, then I think it's pretty timeless because of the unique viewpoint. If it's something like a Pole Position - though still great fun - I agree that you're often better served by the latest and greatest because of that engine's relative limitations in comparison to what is available today. In short, I agree with you 100% about most racing games of the behind-the-car-perspective being far superior today than they have been in the past where they had to fake a lot of the things that are physics-based today.

One instance where I think that's not necessarily the case, I actually PREFER every version of Burnout before Burnout Paradise because it added too much freedom to the mix, but that's more about changing the core gameplay than any audio-visual differences.