The evolution of the microstructure of L-605 cobalt superalloy during high-temperature deformation is investigated using mean-field models combined with a reverse-engineering method. This method provides the unknown material parameters such as mobility and nucleation frequency, and it helps to quantify the occurrence of recrystallization. The effect of alloying elements on the mobility is quantified by comparison with the pure metal. Despite the large concentration of elements, the solute-drag effect can still be properly described by the Cahn model. A comparison with experimental results sheds new light on the occurrence of joint mechanisms that are usually neglected, such as self-heating and meta dynamic recrystallization. The inclusion of these phenomena is not significantly more complicated when compared to the basic model, but it significantly improves the predictability for large strain rate.