... I see a lot of similarities with the Paris-Dakar, as a motor sport equivalent... a race with a huge entry barrier, where it's not necessarily the most talented driver who wins. The purest motor sport is go-kart, that's where you go and look for the next Ayrton Senna.... that's proper racing!
The demographic of TCR is by necessity closer to 50 than it is to 20... you need a lot of time and a lot of money to be in it... in some respect, you buy your way into it, by being fortunate enough to live a comfortable life... of course there will be exceptions: deranged bike couriers, who eat of out of tins for 350 days, so that they can do TCR, but it's not an example for anyone, I think.
School age riders are pretty much excluded from the event, although they represent the talent to nurture, not some 40 something it manager with an appetite for adventure. A club race is 5 quid, a BC cat 2/3/4 race is 10-20 quid and they are local... that's where you spot racing talent, not in some kind of exotic adventure cycling across a continent.
For all these reasons, I don't believe it is "pure racing"...