"...All the races are primarily multiplayer events, so you will face other players in each of them." That's unexpected and disappointing. I don't know what they were thinking, TDU was never about that. Look like another clueless attempt to create a live service game simply because it's expected to bring an endless flow of cash.
That's what they were always going for, but were limited by technology of 2006. TDU1 was ahead of its time in many aspects, and Solar Crown is fulfilling some ambitions that weren't achievable back then, including the entire online focus. You still should be able to tune the noise out and cruise around alone if you like though.
I don't know what they were aiming for, but TDU1 didn't revolve around PVP, neither did TDU2 five years later (or The Crew that was made by a studio created by some of Eden games developers), and not because they couldn't: for example, Drift City was a PVP-focused online game from 2007. The tech was there. TDU1/2 and The Crew all had multiplayer races of different modes, but they also had solid single player aspect, it was a design choice. Unfortunately that's not enough for me. I liked TDU1 and 2 as a whole, not just some of their features in separate.
You're mixing up two things - live service and PvP focus. TDU1 was designed as a live service by today's terms. You had an option to experience most of the content offline, so people without Internet connection aren't left out. That's what I meant by technology of its time - the technology in possesion of their target crowd. You couldn't just leave them on ice and expect good sales. This is the first time I hear about Drift City, and maybe that's the reason - it was a niche game that didn't make that compromise. And so they created a wide single-player set of content for everybody to experience with some multiplayer-exclusive content on top of it. But player had to commit to offline or online mode at account creation stage, and once you committed online, it became an online-only game. Now regarding PvP focus, as you can see, a game can be designed as a live service and not be PvP focused, like TDU1. So while they're pushing the entire clans war a lot, let's wait and see. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot to do for people wanting to play the game on their own, just not necessarily races. Time trials and other challenges are pretty much given.
This is a bigger quote from their newsletter (bold font is mine): The only way you can interpret it as NOT a PVP-focused game is if you interpret "primarily" as "most races, but not all of them", but it can also be a reference to the AI-autofill feature. "Each of them" is as precise as can be. Also I'll repost my comment from another place in a discussion about offline mode so that you could see where I'm coming from: I'm not mixing up live service and PVP, I treat this info about PVP as one of the pieces of the puzzle, the puzzle that for now looks very different from what TDU1 and 2 were. The only way it can look different is when we start to question what they literally said while having nothing but blind hopes about that, and obviously this won't get us far. Regarding what they wanted, I absolutely don't care about that, I only care what I actually got in a 2006 game and then in a 2011 game and if I get that too in the next one. Because I'm not a fan of these developers or their ideas, I'm a fan of the end result. If TDUSC ends up how Eden games supposedly wanted it in 2000s, then I'm glad they couldn't do it back then and instead I got not just one, but two games that I liked and played a lot. I'm not interested in a PVP-focused game or a live service with weekly schedules. Even if it has some single player missions or time trials here and there, that's not enough for me, especially on top of all the other changes that to me are very important. It just doesn't look like a game for me anymore. (Upd: And TBH doesn't look like a TDU game at all, from my point of view. I'll refrain from saying what I actually believe it's gonna be, don't want to spread negativity that isn't properly based on information.)