[Matz Lustig]

I could not care less what view someone uses for driving. It's a game after all, and you just do not have peripheral vision like in real life.
Cockpit view might be most realistic, sure, but given that it being a 2D rendering, the cars structure around you is restricting your view far more then in real life.
In real life, when you turn your view e.g. to the A-pillar, your left and right eye, being like 10cm apart, record images from different positions, partly viewing an area
behind the pillar, that is not visible for the other eye. This tremendously helps to reduce the dead area behind the pillar in real life.
In sim racing, you only have a single viewpoint, and the view restriction is much greater, and therefore much more obtrusive.
Bonnet view also helps to make out the width of the track and where your car is positioned relative to it.
It is all about playing in 2D a game that would need 3D more then anything.

So as long as VR is not a given standard, I'll be happy for anybody driving with bonnet view, or even worse, chase view, if that makes them better at jusding distances
or avoiding contact in close battle.

Myself, I'm driving in cockpit view, in front of a single monitor, and with the help of heliocorsa. I do so because I'm after the immersion of being in the race car.
I also use clutch and H-pattern gear box. Does this make me faster? No, quite the opposite really. Shifting and clutching  and braking and blipping the engine, all at the same time,
I can never make it perfect, and mishshifts and lock ups occasionally do happen, but ...I'm having a great time

edit: thread is kind of old,...nvm...