Richard Burns Rally is often touted as the closest to reality. I know Nikolai Gryazin (WRC2) plays fairly often - he actually used it to practice the Czech stage Semetin before going on to win it in real life: https://m.rally-base.com/2019/barum-czech-rally-zlin-2019/?s...
Seconded. I enjoyed rally games at one point and found this one the most realistic (not that I actually did any rally). Also very hard. I had to use low-power cars only to be able to control them. There's something relaxing about driving a long track alone, even in a game.