A racing game without gas or brakes, what a terrible idea (xD great minds seem to think alike).
Though I must admit your execution is better than ours. The fact that you lose speed when running into things and build it back up with clean driving, and how you use tire health to force a player to get to the next wheel quickly is a great idea.
The art makes gives the game a nostalgic touch, like playing an old flash game, and I rather enjoy the setting, they really built beautiful cars back then. Unfortunately, unless you're playing in full screen, the UI decides it doesn't want to be on the edges anymore, which does retract from the overall polish.
The audio is pretty barebones, and while I do love some good rock, it restarting every time you die and restart does get a little bothersome to me. And with this games difficulty, I would rather listen to my own playlist instead of the same song on repeat while grinding away at the highscore. A mute button or more tracks would have been nice. (this sounded nicer in my head, I hope you don't get the wrong idea here. I do still like the music, it's just a bit repetitive)
Narrative-wise, I've already mentioned how I enjoy what could easily have been a fuel gage be rebranded as tires, since they would get a lot more wear in that terrain and with the relative speeds compared to the fuel tank. The wreckages of cars that didn't make the journey spread about the course is also a nice touch, giving a possible explanation for the tires far off the gas station, but speaking of, I feel like there are a few too many off them. Who would want to work at a gas station in the middle of nowhere? Or are they abandoned? In my opinion there could have been more done with them.
Finally, the enjoyment. Dust Rush probably ranks as my favourite game of the jam. The difficulty makes each completion rewarding and the score keeps you pushing to get faster and faster. Especially the high score being show at all times makes this a good game for competitive players. It feels like an old arcade that you keep revisiting to defend your highscore or try to capture it away from someone else.
Nicely done.
(Edit because I forgot:) a little quality of life addition that I would have liked is to be able to restart using the space key instead of the mouse/trackpad. Having to move your hand away from the simple controls, or having to use your other hand gets tedious on the 500th try. Oh, and I don't really see the point of the quit button in a web only game? There is no main menu to go back to so it just quits the game, which feels odd in a browser.