Tomb Raider is a action-adventure video game franchise made by british game studio CORE Design and published by Eidos Interactive (those guys who also own Gex) and it's about an archeologist named Lara Croft who travels through mysterious lands on Earth in order to explore it and get a treasure.
Tomb Raider was a huge success and it's first game was so successful enough that became one of pop culture's video game landmarks that many people know to this day.
Heck, also the first game also spawned a franchise that contains games and movies.
Lara Croft wasn't the first female protagonist in video game history, but she popularized the whole shtick of women protags in video games.
Racers:
1. Lara Croft (She could use her 2013 appearance as default skin)
2. Alister Fletcher (Tomb raider legend design + Lara Croft's friend)
3. Winston Jeeves (Could use original design as default)
Content ratio:
5 Characters
5 Tracks
5 Vehicles
2 Wheels
4 Skins (3 to Lara and 1 for any character beside Lara)
I think Tomb Raider could work as a main franchise since we have many vehicles and tracks to pick since this franchise has many possibilities.
Plus this franchise is also an example where female character can be a main protagonist as well.