I appreciate that some people liked it but I don't want to cause offense to anybody who liked it bit I'll say this...
If you have no regard for its real history but for somebody knowledgable with both cars involved and is a fan of that era of sportscar racing, I hated it; hated it so much that I have bragged everywhere about being bored watching it in the cinema so much that I took my phone out and read my email and looked through the Black Friday sale on eBay and Amazon (the only time I did this in a cinema)...and incidentally, I ordered a book about the events the film did not cover and one about the Porsche 904 (another 1960s Le Mans car).
TBH, people who have serious interests in both the Ford GT40s and the Ferrari P series and care about historical accuracy will not like the film at all. Now you can understand why people bash it. Also, some of the enthusiasts of either cars/marques hated it too, from what I learned on the internet. Yes, people will say "it's a movie", my response will always be "do I give a flying ****". I suppose historical factual film are not my thing.
I suppose people like it because it appeals to the low attention span action movie addicts more than serious enthusiasts of cars like Rush or Le Mans (the Steve McQueen film) did.
As for racing scene, I've seen better - it was the low attention span nature of the film that killed it for me.
Though I thought he Oscar wins for special effect is deserved, I feel its completely undeserving of a Best Picture nomination. Bale did a great job in the film as well as the cinematography.
I say the film is way below par to Rush, Winning, Grand Prix, Le Mans and numerous others, though better than TF&TF.
Of Mangold's films, I liked Logan better despite missing not watched any X-Men films since the first.