I amend my initial statement from "it feels worse now" to "I prefered the old mechanics"
(this is all my own personal opinion, and most likely could just be a glaring skill issue on my part).
I preferred the tighter drifting mechanics of the 1.2 release, I found the 1.3 update to be more slippery and less predictable. like controlling on ice.
I suppose it comes down to how much realism you want in the simulation. 1.2 had a more arcade-y feel to it which I prefer, and 1.3 has a more realistic feel which i'm sure some other people in the community prefer.
Maybe you could add an option in the settings for how you want the drifting to feel, so people who like the new and the old style can still enjoy it the way they want. This will, however, change the amount of effort you will need to put in for supporting speedrunning as i'm sure there will be people who are faster on one setting or the other
Overall, I appreciate that it isn't a finished product yet and hope you won't take this as me saying your game is now terrible because it most definitely isn't. Also, please don't just use my experience, ask others in the community on what they prefer
ps: I love the new track