From what ive read, some peoples opinions and facts are total rubbish.
At the top of the thread i read something about cruise server being more popular than race servers, if this is so, then take a look again, and you will see Cargame.nl S2 racing server. It is always full and produces some of the best public racing around, apart from that, a lot of racers are hidden on private servers or practicing on single player, because they are preparing for an event or league race.
As for this being a racing simulator, it is purely designed for racing only. People using their initiative and the right tools to create a cruise insim was purely player based, not anything from the Developers. An open world map would possibly be a good idea, but it has its pro's and conns. Ill list some that i can quickly think of;
Pro's
#1 - It would bring some more freedom to cruisers, in a more realistic world / track.
#2 - For racers, this could provide some great racing, and possibly if done correct, racing in an open world map could produce some racing similar to the Monaco Grand Prix, street racing (not talking NFS here guys).
Conns
#1 - Many LFS users dont have a great computer, and therefore would lack the optimal amount of FPS and cause driving & racing to be a nightmare.
#2 - It would take a lot of time, and effort, possibly a fair amount of money for it to be done correctly, and this would draw focus away from other developments such as S3 and the content we are waiting for.
#3 - With such a huge map, There would have to be more slots on the track in which players can join (max 32 atm), and this would mean that not only the developers would have to release an update allowing more cars on the track, but also server hosting companies, such as 500servers, would possibly have to boost their dedi performance. Causing crashes, errors and more problems with the host, and the server its self.
I could be wrong, but this is just my opinion.