Train from airport is ok everything else in town mostly walking distance or via train or bike it. No need for a car imho. Very walkable town. Sight see on the bike good.

Stay within 1-2km of the palais de-anglais start area doesnt need to be on the water, booking.com agoda airbnb all ok most of nice is not usa Asia style hotels its older local hotels or apartments, note some rooms are extremely small compared to what you might be used to.

Still rooms available I think. Unlike Lahti.

When I did Worlds 70.3 in Nice 2019 we stayed in a lovely AirB&B walking distance to everything. A tad smaller but still we had plenty of space for everything. I really like having a kitchen so we do the AirB&Bs instead of hotels. We were also a 2 minute walk from a healthy food co-op which was really great for us. And restaurants are right there as well. And a 3 min walk to the sea.

ETA: we took an Uber from the airport to our accommodation. I don't think it was more than 15 mins of a nice drive. Our driver was great. I remember he spoke like 6 languages. We didn't need a car in Nice (we did rent one for a day to go outside of Nice after the race)

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

juat got back from Nice. airB&B, by far your best bet.

The old city, as the name says, is the oldest part of the city. However it's very very small. Oldest in this case means until 18th century so apartments in this area might be quite small, with odd shapes, possibly lacking elevator. However, most of the city developed in the 19th and 20th. The type of buildings and accomodation varies a lot from quite old to very modern. A building might be super old and the next one might be recently renovated. So you'll have to check the hotel or Airbnb description in detail.

For easiest access on race day you want to be walking distance from theatre de verdure / jardin albert 1er.

Parking in Nice is difficult and expensive. Traffic can be very slow at times and promenade des anglais gets completely closed on race day. Unless you choose to stay in another town, you should and can do without a car.

If you want to consider options that are farther away from the main race area, you can easily move with public transportation. The tram lines are very frequent and efficient. Also, there's a bus service that follows the promenade.

Another option for moving around is the velobleu bike share system which has lots of stations. It's a bit finicky to use, the bikes are poorly maintained and dirty. However, it works quite well if you get the hang of it and allows very fast travel. There's also a few electric scooter sharing systems.

Keep in mind parts of Nice are hilly. There's some really nice Airbnb apartments on the hills. They are residential areas, very quiet with beautiful views. They are a brilliant option if staying longer but it might take a little longer to travel to the race area.