Interesting topic and interesting material.
Some time ago there also was an interesting article from OptimumG about the usage of their free software OptimumLap.
The Aim was to study how a F1 car could perform in COTA before F1 has ever been there. The numbers shown were pretty interesting (and according to my sources, not too far the real car) and results not too far from what F1 cars have then done on track. But unfortunately they removed the article from their website.
I still have a paper copy at home.
Anyway, as somebody else said already here, if you don't want to reproduce real car behaviour but you only aim to show informative material regarding math and calculations, then you could also use rFactor and produce some more detailed data out of a session.
Actually, although it is not a professional sim software, it could give you also very good hints regarding car performance and behavior...
Take a look here...
http://drracing.wordpress.com/
The same optimumLap, although being a point mass simulation, could give you some material for your articles.
). My goal with these articles is to help people hate math less, and hopefully enjoy the article. Please let me know I'm not wasting my time 
