There are lots of nice old motels along the original Route 66. A decade ago I stayed at one in Tucumcari, NM. It was built in the 1960s, with the large rooms that were typical then. It was spotless and priced absurdly low. The bed felt nearly new, but most of the furniture was decades old, yet in surprisingly good condition.
I spoke with the owners for a while. They had moved to NM from Pennsylvania. They loved all the Route 66 nostalgia, and were working hard to keep a piece of it alive.
I was amazed at how many guests were from overseas, visiting the USA specifically to drive Route 66. They must see it as a piece of history that you can still experience. I met a group of nine Swiss police officers, riding Route 66 on rented Harleys for a magazine article back home. I also met three old guys from Australia who had bought a beautifully restored '65 T-Bird convertible in Tennessee. They were driving it to L.A. on Route 66, where they would ship it back to Australia. I also met two guys driving the old Studebaker Hawks in the photo below to a rally. One was the very rare Super Hawk with the factory Paxton supercharger.