Thanks for the feedback! Agreed about the collision stuff, especially at high speeds and perpendicular angles the kickback and slowing could be greatly increased. I do want to leave some room for using the side rails strategically, but ya it's too rubbery right now!
In terms of the braking, I've been thinking about trying out a dedicated brake button at some point, but I want to see if it makes sense to have different cars handle drastically different first. I like your idea of assisting the turns tho, kinda like the F-Zero lean buttons.