actually even though the courses a pretty streamlined, i have been completely screwed by a bad crash at times.
once i was shot right before going up a ramp with the boat and i could not build up enough speed to go over the ramp. so i went from 1st to last because i had to back up and go around it. It was on an S class race in the final lap and i was amazingly pissed off.
but even the boost power up can be used right after being hit to take the edge off and recover.
I just unlocked joe musashi, isn't it kind of weird he has a theme from ps2 shinobi which was about different characters? I did read that his all star is broken and since he handles about the same as knuckles i might start using him.
Vehicle mods are a good idea, it doesnt look like any character would be unused because of how bad their stats are, because its fixable. So really I can just pick the best all star and the right mod.