Nudity in non-sexual context, especially in paintings and sculptures, has been widely accepted in Western cultures for centuries, regardless of age. The current guidelines for the PEGI age ratings, for example, state that depictions of nudity in those cases are not restricted to any specific age group. In short, in our cultures it's a non-issue.
We also have to account for the time period when the game was originally released. Back then, it was still the norm for games to be released in CDs and DVDs, unlike the digital distribution from the likes of Steam that is so common nowadays - so it's hard to know which countries got an official release back then. This was also before F1 itself had any races in the Middle East, before China, before Turkey, just to name a few. So it's fair to assume there really wasn't much consideration about what could be accepted or offensive in different cultures.
The censorship in the game is basically restricted to hiding tobacco and alcohol sponsors, even though a few beverages unknown to the developers slip through the final product - Microprose was a fairly small studio from what we know. By the way, back then there was no PEGI rating either.
What can we do about the loading screen for those who find it offensive? Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi gave the solution when he received a visit from the Iranian president back in 2016...
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