I'm not exactly using a "gaming rig" at the moment. I tested the game on a Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra 10.12.4 so far. (That's a Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB, 2 GHz Intel Core i7, and 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM.)
I screengrabbed something, hope that helps a bit: zeug.eiszblu.me/share/vektor-tearing.mov (I was driving like an idiot because I tried to get to the pause menu by pressing Esc which apparently doesn't work haha.)
(Yes, this looks like that even without using a screen recorder.)
The crash also occurs when I remove all characters including the last one pressing X.
About the speed-- I'm a great fan of the WipEout games, and I especially like the Zone racing mode because the speed increases every second and the only thing you have to care about is your agility. So that's why I like me some insane speed classes. :D