These rallies are more about enjoyment than speed, and can be a good introduction to historic motorsport (which also include race meetings, classic endurance, and hillclimbing).
Note that with the introduction of electronics, control points can be replaced by sensors which trigger the cars at their given time thanks to a transponder, enabling much accurate penalties system.
On the long tough rallies of yesteryear drivers had to drive 3000 km exclusively up and down the French Alps, against the clock for most of the way, and look after the gearbox and every other part of the car, since changing them was impossible.
Liège-Sofia-Liège, for example, being almost a flat out drive from Belgium to Bulgaria and back, through the roughest roads the length of Yugoslavia and over the difficult passes like the Gavia and the Vivione in Italy.
For example, Monte Carlo Rally had long sections running through the Chartreuse mountains between Chambéry and Grenoble before crossing the Rhone valley and continuing in what was often the deeply snowbound and ice covered Ardèche, all in the same night.