People say EVE is close to it. I have spent two months in EVE awhile ago... even though it's close it's really not on par with Elite, Frontier: Elite 2, hell even Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3, even though buggy). I wish I could point my finger at what is different about it, but I can't.

edit: now that I think about it, I think visual style of the game has a lot to do with it as well.