"Hard Drivin's approach to collisions or unrealistic events—putting the car back on the road at a standstill—was the norm for driving games until later games such as Cruisin' USA and its successors introduced intentionally artificial physics to force a car to always stay near the road and land right-side up pointing forward."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Drivin%27

I thought it was fun due to its realism.

also this bit is interesting from the wikipedia page

Physics The engine, transmission control, suspension, and tire physics were modeled in conjunction with Doug Milliken[18] who was listed as a test driver in the game credits. In the 1950s his father William Milliken of Milliken Research led a team at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo NY USA (later Calspan) that converted aircraft equations of motion to equations of motion for the automobile, and became one of the world's leading experts in car modeling.

BTW, what is the spiritual successor to Hard Drivin' today?