I'm in my 30's and live in Canada. I have been playing ETS2 since 2014 and ATS since release. I play more ATS nowadays but still enjoy ETS2 when the mood strikes me. I only drive real miles and have an entry-level sim setup with Tobii EyeTracker and an 18 speed shifter, and almost exclusively drive modded trucks.

I drive some rigid-chassis trucks in my day job, mostly picking up sea cans and loaded pallets of various pieces of equipment with a PLS arm on the back. Some of these trucks are antiquated pre-emissions manuals, some are quite modern DEF units with automatics. I much prefer the older equipment in almost every respect. I love rolling coal!

With that said, in ETS2, I drive modern trucks with automatic transmissions. As you need to use the clutch to shift the European gearboxes, it's less fun (to me!) than floating gears in an Eaton Fuller. If I wanted to shift with the clutch, I'd just go drive my car IRL.