Yep, you are absolutely right. In fact, if it were considered a romance anime, we might have included it in the list.

The romance aspect in Initial D can give off that vibe, but as you rightly pointed out, it’s highly likely that the author handled it that way because he didn’t want to dive too deep into it, yet didn’t want to leave it out entirely.

But we must also admit that the primary focus of the series is almost entirely on car racing, so this slight drawback is, let’s say, quite negligible, maybe.