Have you read the book Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson? The world in Ready Player One reminds me of Stephenson's world. Between this and the new Blade Runner, it's cool to see the cyberpunk genre work it's way back into the popular consciousness.

On the topic of VR generally, there have been a few false starts in the past - I remember the Virtual Boy in the mid 1990s. But the infrastructure and ecosystem around VR is much stronger than it was then. With 3D movies being main stream there is a ton of ready made content out there, not to mention vehicle simulators as you mentioned. At this point I think the challenges are less technology and more business model.