Yep because when your in your car you can often slam into other drivers, collide into walls and such and find that your car is surrounded by a magic forcefield making it impenitrable to damage.
It is also the pinacle of realism to be able to reset your car should you go off course as well. I know my car is fitted with a reset button (I think its near the hazard warning lights).
Oh and of course every "real" driver had the ability whilst cruising down the road to suddenly shift viewpoint and have an outer body experience enabling you to see the car from an exterior shot.
Also I have noticed that in the real world, that during pro races if a driver doesn't like the way the race is progressing or should they fail, then its perfectly ok to restart and replay a race over and over again. Happens all the time as its the pinnacle of real.
The pinnacle of real is an overblown and over used statement for GTA series, and utterly contradicted by every game mechanic employed in it. Of course gran turismo is only a game, and has to be fun. Often real world driving is not. But to hold it aloft and declare it a somthing it is simply not (ie real) is a pure oxi moron. In many ways HardDriving back in arcade in the early 90's was mor authentic as a driving simulator than any of the GTA series. However it was also crap.
So please do we really have to throw around these overblown statements on here too.