Yeah, totally not realistic. Bad AI, cringe story and an inconsistent handling model, but I recently realized something... If ever there was a game that tried to capture car culture as it was around the time it released, NFS 2015 did an awesome job there. All that cringe story? It's not taking itself too serious and has a lighthearted feel to it, but it all leads to something - meeting some of the icons of tuner culture - Magnus Walker, Ken Block and most importantly Akira Nakai among others. And the amount of detail in terms of tuning and driving styles to put you into that car culture is insane when you know the topic. Not to mention 5 years later it still looks impressive. I know people here are about serious racing, but if you ever want something more chill to play from a couch with a pad this is it. Also, as far as NFS games go (and I've been with the series from its inception), this one probably best nails the initial idea (street racing cars and being the a part of the culture that you see in magazines). Here is some extra food for thought and maybe an invitation to a discussion. My perspective is a bit unusual - I lost interest in racing after Senna died (and I was only a kid back then), with a brief hype for rally which was ruined by Loeb and later Ogier (I seriously kept watching only to see them fail). Block sort of made me interested again but was such a disappointment, thought he so nice and positive despite his utter failure, that I at least followed the season. Why I'm saying this? Well for me, racing sims as in simulating real racing series was more of a concession, rather than what I wanted from a game - there was just nothing out there that felt believable and realistic that wouldn't involve actually knowing race cars and series. You guys know what I need and what you probably might like too? A game with realistic physics that allows you to build your car, modify it, paint it - non of that corporate sponsors stickers, just flames, tribals and anime girls - and take it somewhere that is not Nurburgring. So far NFS 2015 nails half of it. If you don't feel like sitting in you rig and focusing on those apexes, but maybe would like to drive a Porsche with a wide-body kit and 600 bhp that you just slapped together on some mountain roads at night - this is your totally flawed, yet awesome game. Wish we had a sim like this, but it is what it is.
I'm impressed you sticked with NFS for so long. I started with HP2 (later played Porsche Unlimited too) and my last straw were Undercover followed by Shift. Many years later, after having been used to TDU and Grid series I tried HP (2010) to see what it is and found out it doesn't have a single thing I'm interested in in racing games.
NFS 2015 is in the Origin/EA Access Basic Vault for 3,99 a month or 24,99 a year... There are a lot NFS games in the vault... Heat is also availabe...
I just checked the video Need for Speed 2015 - Top 5 Fastest Cars and it seems like a pretty decent game.