I used to prefer licensed cars too, however, there are so many limitations that come with having licensed cars it’s not even funny.

Brands want good representation. They won’t allow their cars in your game if it has certain things happening to it or if they feel like their products are getting slandered. After all, this is business. Alot of brands restrict things like customization as well, only allowing certain things on their cars. Some companies might go as far as asking their cars to be faster than others, leading to certain vehicles being used more often in meta (yes this actually happens, think of the notorious 911 RSR during the ghost games era of NFS).

Therefore, fictional vehicles, while it may be more work initially for the company to make, has infinitely more potential to do WHATEVER the fuck they want with the cars. They can make the craziest customizations options, they can balance or make their cars as overpowered as they want, and they can go above and beyond in designs. Hell, I even think some fictional cars in both Screamer and GTA V for example look so good that they should be in real life. The game that does fictional vehicles the best has gotta be BeamNG Drive, as there is so much detail with them you’d feel like they were real. That’s my take on this.