I don’t mind boring scenery. What makes the drive unpleasant for me is traffic and start/stop, which doesn’t tend to happen in remote areas. If I have the choice of boring scenery in a remote area vs traffic on the 5 or even start/stop driving through a typical city; I’d choose the boring scenery remote area every time.
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I found the Salt Flats pretty.
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On I-40? That is indeed bad. It was a long time ago (2001) but I remember it as very boring and never ending.
The drive from Dallas to Albuquerque. Just awful. And flat. And ugly.
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There are pretty parts of Texas. 
There are forests in east Texas and some beautiful hill country west of Austin. I love driving in the Hill Country. Going from Fredericksburg through Blanco to Wimberley is a good route. There are nice beaches on the gulf, too.
I used to subscribe to “Texas Highways” and they always featured nice scenery.
A site I just found: The 27 Most Beautiful Places in Texas - PureWow
I don’t think I’ve found any place ugly in Maine, yet.
I-90 through Indiana, particularly through Gary, also sticks in my mind as being awful. And it has been about 25 years since I did it.
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Omaha to Denver is pretty boring.
We drove from Minneapolis to Phoenix. I would say Kansas City to into New Mexico through Dalhart, TX was not my favorite stretch of road.
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You didn’t sing the song Gary, Indiana the whole time?
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Not too many really ugly drives in MA (and not many long ones) but the stretch of route 1 through Peabody and Danvers is ghastly. Chain restaurants, a strip club, car dealerships - the works - plus the driving is scary with weird off and on ramps. And it is always busy. It’s not even kitschy anymore now that the Hilltop is gone.
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When I lived in Nashville, I would drive up to my hometown of Minocqua, WI… about 820 miles.
The drive up 24W through TN and western KY is pretty.
But once you get into IL, it’s just flatter than a pancake and there is… nothing. LOL. That is one loooooong trip up (roughly) the longitudinal middle of IL. (57 to 74 to 39)
Edit: Once into Wisconsin there are hills and lakes (especially northern WI) and trees. Animals. But Illinois is pretty hard to stay awake through.
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Is the Golden Banana still there?
No. I-40 only goes through the panhandle of Texas, 179 miles. They are talking about the 800+ miles of I-10/I-20.
Yes! And the Kowloon is still open as well.
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Also, the stretch through NJ/NY on our way up to Maine is one of the rings of hell I hope I never have to endure again in this life.
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I can send you the alternate route…longer but much prettier!
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Believe me, we know all the routes, but I won’t drive one minute longer than I have to.
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That’s me. It is. It’s not dull. It’s ugly. And it’s loaded, wall to wall with big rigs headed to the North. I read a stat - it said it’s the 2nd most trafficked highway stretch in America.
It’s a toilet bowl.
There’s plenty of boring drives - someone said W NY. But it’s not ugly.
Most are not ugly. Just boring. At least to me (many are mentioned upthread).
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All of I-80. The construction. The monotony. The horrible facilities (except in Ohio, kudos to the Buckeyes)
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My S would agree wholeheartedly about I-80 having made this drive multiple times to and from grad school.
My SIL lives in Indiana now, but had lived in Michigan and Ohio, she drives here to NJ a lot so I’ve heard about the corn. My husband and some of our kids flew to Chicago to bring a minivan back to NJ, the kids would sleep for a few hours, wake up, and ask why they hadn’t moved. My least favorite local road is the cross Bronx expressway, not a long ride but a very still ride.
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