Another cult classic turns 30 this year: Grand Prix II, released by MicroProse in 1996, designed by Geoff Crammond, as the sequel to Formula One Grand Prix. For those who might have forgotten, Crammond was also the mastermind behind The Sentinel, Revs and Stunt Car Racer.
You are put into the position of a driver in the 1994 F1 season with all 16 circuits, 14 teams, and 28 drivers.
This game broke new ground with SVGA graphics, excellent physics, textured 3D tracks, and extras like smoke and fire animations. You can tweak your car (breaks, gears, suspension), do training and qualifying laps, and then enter the main race event. By the way, if you watch the video all the way to the end, you will see how incredibly long the races were (the video shows a single round, out of 69!), so you had to keep up your focus for a very long time.
I loved playing this game but I was never good at it. I thought the skill ceiling extremely high. It sold over 1.5 million copies, making it a massive hit back in the day.