When i started playing LFS I started with chase view. The reason was the point you are making about seeing what the car is doing, and seeing who is driving next to you(which is more difficult with in car view). But I think the biggest reason was i always played arcade racers before (TOCA, NFS, TD) and in those games i played with chase view. It was the view i was used too.
Last year i decided to drive some races with in car view. I started with the open wheelers because there you can see the most with that view and now i drive every car with in car view. Funny thing is i can't even drive good anymore with chase view, so my conclusion is that you only stick to a certain view because you are used to it.