While I'm familiar with train simulators, from the related videos I just discovered a weird kind of one that's completely news to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcNTQhT5cx8
Rather than rendering in 3D, it's literally just a driver's eye video of a real train journey played at variable speed. Actually genius if you think about it - the linearity of a rail simulation makes it possible, and it's better than any renderer.
Taking a cab video and then syncing it with controls is a fairly old approach. The first example I've seen was from Ongakukan in 1995 (Win 95J) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_Simulator_series). The video were 360x240 or similar and filled a CD. Quite realistic as long as you "play the game" and don't stop near a road near stations where there is road traffic that then stops too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9LlMSMsgrc