I would say this is one of the worst possible scenarios, it doesn't seem very profitable the combination of old titles and third party licences. Can those early NFS games generate enough sales to make it worthwhile to sign a new deal for those licences?

Well, re-licensing cars (even if we don't consider the music in 1-3 that may be not licensed) will demand money and other efforts that have very little chance for payback. And some right-holders may refuse to sell rights again at all cause of their politics etc (if one refuses, the whole game can't be released at least before cutting out its IP with additional efforts). So it's not just about EA, some other company would refuse to do this too.

Nope, they can't.

Maybe when studios start making racing games with made-up brands, instead of licensing real ones, they'll be easier to preserve.

That's out of the question.
The actual question is: will the majority of gamers accept racing games without recognizable (famous) car brands?

There have been racing games that have recognizable car brands, but name them something generic.

Sure.
There are also football games out there that have "recognizable" clubs - but the devs named the clubs and the players something generic/parodistic...
And usually, no serious football fan will touch these games, for as long as there is not an option made available to edit the clubs/player's names to the real ones.

How I wish some influential US senator would pressure the automotive industry to simplify licensing rights for their cars in games that are over 25 years old. Ideally, this would be done for free or with a huge discount, and they wouldn't be able to prevent it on the grounds of "Player's rights come first" ;)

Huh? Can you elaborate more?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1301010/World_Racing_2__Champion_Edition/

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/why_so_few_simulators_on_gog/post39

Seems gog was interested but nothing ever came of it.