What's the point of the fuel gauge?

Not sure why people want to be able to run out of fuel anyway. It isn’t a racing sim where you have pit stops and adding fuel is an actual strategy. It adds nothing to a game like Horizon 3. I just thought it was a given that when I jump back to the festival, the car is fixed and I’m refueled. People overthink this game WAY too much. Being able to run out of fuel while racing means they have to add pit stops and this game isn’t set up that way. Also it is in no way a sim.