I've seen a lot of posts talking about the current modes's issues. One of the most common ones is obviously the crashing/ramming into each other.

My suggestion would be the middle ground between the current game mode and the "ghost/hologram" thing. Essentially what I'm proposing is to reduce the collision effect drastically.

Currently if car A rams into car B from the side, Car A is turned to the opposite side or does a 180 (ends facing backwards) which obviously sucks for Car A

If we decrease the effect of the ramming on Car A, Car A would still slow down (don't need to make it to ghost level either) but not turn around, and if Car A has a nitro or is good then they can recover.

This way, the competitive element stays without the more agressive/annoying current elements.

To give an example of what I mean (only game I can think of) look at Horizon Chase Turbo (I know its a small game but I think part of the mechanics from this game could work really well to make rocket racing more enjoyable)