Yeah, there are a lot of eventualities with simulated reality and artificial intelligence that are unpleasant to think about. We can build physical cars that can drive themselves better than humans, so why will the driver be needed? Humans won't need the actual physical cars to experience the pleasure of driving or racing. I caught a few minutes of "drone racing" one night on ESPN2, rolled my eyes, but then started to wonder how much longer race car drivers will need to be inside the cars to drive them. For me, that's the whole appeal. As soon as the driver isn't in an actual vehicle, I feel like I'm just watching a video game and don't care to spectate. But future generations will see it differently.
I'm just glad life is finite and I'll only have to concern myself with it for X number of decades. There's really no fighting or suppressing it. For as long as we're alive, enough people will still prefer to experience the actual physical thing live in person to keep it going.