Back in the days criminals used to be excellent drivers and often practiced hours out of mission just to perfect escape routes while enforcers were excellent at reading the map, anticipating escape routes and setting up road blocks to stop fleeing criminals. You often see enforcers patrolling the streets (often together with a partner) trying witness criminals committing crime. You often saw criminals engaging in ram raiding, mugging and stealing cars. The whole Witness mechanic was a central entry point to start missions. This game used to have (or at last had the potential to get) a feeling of Fast and the Furious or Gone in 60 seconds. Cops and Robbers.
Today world events (ram raiding, mugging and stealing cars) is just something that newbies do in empty servers. There are also not a single missions where the focus is good driving (where the objective is to drive fast but still avoid hitting pedestrians, traffic signs and other cars etc).