It also is devoid of any of the (often catastrophic) downsides of making a mistake in real life. Turns out driving can be relaxing and fun if you remove anxiety involving death, injury, and property damage. Perhaps the same applies to farming sims.
> The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, in real time at a maximum speed of 45 mph (72 km/h). The feat requires eight hours of continuous play in real time to complete.
> If the player makes it to Las Vegas, one point is scored. The player has the option to make the return trip to Tucson for another point, a decision which must be made in a few seconds or the game ends.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_...
A realistic driving simulator from Omaha to Cheyenne would be pretty boring, I'll give you that.
Now, you could head south of Phoenix, and mostly avoid anything interesting, but you still have a few intersections and so on, this is not one endless road into the desert.
Which isn't to say it'd be a compelling experience, even the Hoover Dam route would be extremely boring for most of the duration.