The reason The Sims 3 doesn't work on your MacBook Pro is because the game doesn't work on Intel Iris graphics. According to @BluebellFlora and @Ashpeef, TS3 has problems with Intel Iris and Intel Iris Pro graphics. If your iMac played TS3 without issues, you probably didn't have the 2.7 GHz iMac which has Intel Iris Pro. The higher-end models have Nvidia GeForce graphics.Graphics: Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB
Processer: 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5