In the old NFS games, there were shortcuts to get through the track faster. So why not make races with the same paths? That is, for example, there will be a race on asphalt, but with an off-road vehicle, you can shorten the path a little to overtake the opponent. I think this is a good test of double checkpoints in the race. That is, the racer must choose either the usual path or the shorter, but more difficult one. If players come up with this idea, then they can try to implement it in many races
For example, here is a video from the game NFS Hot Pursuit 2: