GTA Online, from its inception, was all about being over the top. Random street criminals could own military hardware like tanks and attack-helicopters, murder hundreds and lose the cops just by hiding for a few minutes. Deathmatches saw several heavily armed street criminals murdering one another in high-profile areas without law enforcement interference. So called CEOs rack up millions through illegal trade without having to bribe a single IRS agent.
Let's face it, GTA hasn't ever really gotten the whole realism thing down. But hey, it isn't supposed, it's a game. When video games try to achieve realism, it is in the graphics department. In gameplay, they want to be grounded in realism while allowing players to do fun things that they can't in the real world. Unless you're rich or happen to have zero regard for your own comfort, real life cannot offer the thrills of a fictional world because it's realistic.
GTA has always been known as a franchise grounded in realism. Sure, it is a satirical alternate-universe USA (sometimes UK) with invented location and company names, but it is supposed to represent our world. It never deviates wildly from reality, only in situations where the gameplay mechanics demand it. I mean, you still get away with assault, murder, theft, arson and worse with a small fine, but it's not like you have superpowers or something.
Then the Cunning Stunts update was released which took the whole idea of being grounded in reality, and tossed it off a massive flaming loop suspended thousands of feet in the air. Cunning Stunts features several Stunt Race courses that challenge players with extremely dangerous stunts. These are usually winding around the top floors of Los Santos' skyscrapers, and involve all kinds of obstacles like spinning bar traps, flame rings, crushing walls and jumps so long that they can only be cleared with booster pads.
This is probably the greatest blatant deviation from reality that ever appeared in a GTA game — but could it be the herald of more such updates to come? Major DLCs in the past year or so seemed to be trend-setters. After Lowriders was released, we were still getting additional cars to be upgraded at Benny's for a good half year.
