Why the hell is NFS online only?

I bought Need for Speed (ps4) the other day, enjoying the game, a few issues if you want to drive in the grip range over the easiness of drift style. But for the life of me, I can't see any logical reason why the game has to be always connected to the internet, yesterday the servers were a bit choppy which lead to me having a lead in a sprint race and suddenly being Third place (while no one had overtaken me) and finished the race in second in pretty much 3 seconds, (Video Below)

Have any of you experienced this kind of stupidity in any games you play?