You see less people doing some of the challenges - because some of them “can’t” be done in snow (try setting 3 star golds on some of those road speed traps…)
But overall I dont notice any drop in players.
I like winter - its a fun change - and honestly quite in flow with the game overall anyway 
It really, definitely is.
I love playing in the winter more than any other season. The lack of traction the snow season brings makes for some really challenging and exciting racing. And what about those cross country races in the blizzard conditions - hello! Winter rocks IMO! I’m sure a lot of racers feel the same, but in the minority i’m sure.
Ditto here. Winter is amazing. Looks great and driving is much fun. It really isnt even winter driving. Living in a country with real winters, this is still summer roads in physics. But I dont care. Still such fun!!!
Do what I do. Dont tie yourself down to one metagame minmax cars. Spread out, drive different rides with different tunes. I have a new theme car every season I drive.
Theme car for his winter? Huayra. Snow tires and a softened up suspenion is glorious. I did AWD convert it for the fun factor, but my hypercars do just fun and fine.
I play Horizon for my rally hunger. I like winter because it makes my road racing more fun. A lot of the smaller roads function like dirt roads in the winter and the ice on some bigger roads makes for interesting moments. Winter is my favorite, but fall is my least favorite because of those hay bales
My favorite season is winter to be honest and I wish it would be even more distinct by making powerful rear wheel drive cars completely useless on snow covered roads, I mean stuff like the Senna is almost undrivable but I would go even further. Go fast on clear roads in S2 cars but then you have to switch to …for example the A45 AMG for icy roads. Would be great to have such races. Pick 2 or 3 cars at the start and change cars at certain checkpoints, that would be cool.
I love throwing around 4WD or FWD hot hatches around those icy roads to the south/west, also it’s the prettiest season of them all and games which play in winter are rather uncommon in general. Good to see something “new” or at least less overused like some perfect paradise tropic island or huge city for racing games as a setting.
The only thing I really dislike is how the snow tires are managed. If I download a tune from someone else, it is hard to control if they wear snow or summer tires.
2 things should generally be handled outside of locked tunes:
You can allways try to search winter tunes when it’s winter, when i make winter tune i allways write that. And there is actually lots of tunes that have winter tires but are named somethink like “perfect” max s2 or somethink like that. Because some peoples use dirt tires even road racing setups so they could get more power.
And then spent few hundread more hours to learn some more. I have spent hundreads of hours of tuning and i still learn new things.
There’s always ALWAYS room for improvements. Small little tweaks can make the biggest difference in winning or losing
That is so true, i have spent over hour now in festival drag strip to get my mercury tiny bit faster (drag racing is not somethink i usually do or somethink that i think im good making tunes or setting times) i got 0,133s faster but my rivals position raises somethink like 500 places.
Maybe take a few hours and learn to tune for yourself. I would never trust someone else’s tune. I dont even like driving the cars stock. Need springs, brakes, anti-roll bars at the bare minimum. I like my cars to stick or slide a certain way. It’ll pay off for you in the long run
When I share tunes, I make sure to specify if it is for snow or not. Also what engine it has at times. The rest is my secret.
Actually, I would rather for a blizzard conditions version for a week, and make that an event week. Or, leave winter as it is…but the races for the event would be set in blizzard conditions like Blizzard Moutain.
Winter is by far my favorite season in game, it is freaking beautiful and I can’t think of a driving game that’s captured it like Horizon has. I play more during this week and I’m see no shortage of people.
Road racing seems fine to me just search for a tune by snow description. Also a good excuse to try some cars you normally might not.
Sorry OP but respectfully disagree.
I do think they should let us drop to solo and pick a season though, mostly so I can have more winter. 
I love winter! It’s my second fav after spring.
I just recently started to play this game and my first season after the quick year that shows you all the season was a day of Autumn then winter, I am finding it extremely difficult to do speed zones in the winter and have simply decided to put the game down until the next season rolls along. Not sure how long I will play this game, just knowing that winter will be back and an entire week in it makes me think that maybe I won’t play at all. Winter is bleak and the entire screen is white and it just gets depressing after a while, so yeah.
My 2 Cents
You can still play custom races, or online multiplayer and then you will get all four seasons all the time.
You are right that the speed zones are best left until winter is over.
Or, you could practice and learn how to drive in the snow/Winter - everyone here was new at some point, we all had to learn.
Different seasons bring different aspects, bring different skills - you should at least give it a go, try a couple of Winter seasons, try some different cars and tunes. That - to me - is a part of the game, learning new skills and overcoming some parts you may not initially like.
I also don’t have an issue with winter, car performance hardly seem affected unless you are on a road that’s properly white over… which to be fair, I’d expect. Most of the roads that aren’t white over look wintry but drive almost the same as the other seasons and seasonal tyres help beyond that. The only downside is that a number of the scripted events and challenges such as worlds fastest or speed traps are far easier in summer, with some near impossible to 3 start in winter or spring so you have to pick when to do them. I think they missed an opportunity to have seasonal targets for these or at least make the events seasonal so you have to complete them at different times.
Other issue is that the default races are so short, I play mostly blue prints anyway so I can choose what weather I like.
I can’t stand winter… I essentially leave the game for the entire week when it comes round. But then I suppose I strongly dislike any rally/offroad racing so that’s probably why.