Update: 3 hrs later - My experience with TDU Platinum
So I played through the game a little more, anxiously waiting to see and time when and where the crashes would happen. I also decided to fiddle with my laptop CPU settings a bit, as looking at my CPU temps, they always hit 90 degrees or above, so I thought maybe it could be that my CPU was overheating. After doing a BIOS flash and undervolt to -0.150 mV, I saw that my temps were averaging about high 70s C to mid 80s C (pretty decent improvement). So I started TDU up once again, and then the same thing happened, crash after about 10-20 minutes of playing (FPS drops down to 30 to 20 to 10 to 1 FPS, and then crashes/black screens). I was about ready to just completely give up as I didn't want it to keep crashing and keep reloading the game.
As anxious and hopeless as I was to start up the game again, I did so only with the hope that maybe something different would happen out of pure luck. After playing the game for a total of an hour or so, I finally bought a new house and a new car (S15 Silvia ) , and then I continued to race and before I knew it, I realized I played for an hour and a half and I noticed the game hadn't crash a single time since then (knock on wood). So after doing a bit of research, I found out that some people have been reporting that when they use certain cars (like the R32 GTR), their game will crash. So my guess is I was experiencing a similar problem, as after I sold my first car (being a Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo), I haven't had a crash since then.
To the developer(s) of TDU Platinum, I thank you for creating such an amazing mod for a great nostalgic game. I hope you read this and it will continue to help you improve your mod.
When I crashed:
Settings:
No undervolt
Car: FIAT 20V Coupe
Project Paradise - V-Sync Enabled, HD FX tweak enabled, Fuel Mode enabled, Big .bnk enabled, (everything else disabled)
When I didn't crash:
Settings:
Undervolt -0.150 mV
Car: S15 Silvia, Mazda Savanna GT-X RX-7 (FC), EVO VIII
Project Paradise - V-Sync Enabled, SD FX tweak enabled, Fuel mode disabled, Big .bnk enabled, everything else disabled
**Note: At the time of this post, I am/was not sober. Trying to find out why TDU Platinum kept crashing stressed me out.