How did the Project CARS situation end up for them? Did they offer a refund?
That was entirely different then the usual crowdsourcing campaign on the basis that people who bought into that project were also entitled to some of the profits of the games sales. It was more than just funding it's development and investing into the actual success of the project overall, unlike a significant majority of game related crowdfunding campaigns which primary purpose is to acquire necessary funding to allow the game to have enough just to cover it's development costs.
There is also the matter of transparency. Far into PCars development, SMS stated that Wii U development was put on the backburner and was no longer a top priority.
A much different situation to 90's Arcade Racer which original platform was always PC and Wii U.
In fact looking at the campaign the PS4 and XB1 as a platform are not even mentioned in terms of development or even part of any stretch goal.
So the entire shift of development from the original announced platforms AFTER money was received for the projects funding and becoming two completely never mentioned or announced platforms is extremely misleading if true.
Wii U wasn't part of the Project CARS crowd funding.
Yes it was, in fact the earliest announcement of the campaign was for PC, 360, PS3, and Wii U.
The PS3 and 360 versions were dropped to shift development for next-gen PS4 and XB1 at the time, with the Wii U version still in the works until it's eventual cancellation.
In fact here are some pictures that show it was in development and the concept for it's controls