My favorites where Underground and Underground 2. The Soundtrack was awesome.

Porsch Unleashed was quite a bit more simulator-like, at least the steering mechanics and coefficient of friction. I always kind of enjoyed the arcade physics of the original trio, without going completely slot-car, as keeping racing lines and risking shortcuts was still heavily rewarded. They all had really good soundtracks though, with that late '90s techno and grunge. Or at least that's what my nostalgia tells me.

The first Need for Speed came out in 1994. And even if the graphics do look old, never ever did this run on a C64. It was a DOS game, maybe you confused it?

I played these on pc. I even got the force feedback steering wheel for the 3. Loved playing cop in hot pursuit