Great Questions! Happy to clarify!
- You don't need to track anyone on the racetrack – it's all meant to be abstract. The racing mini-game isn't meant to be a racing simulator, but rather a framework for telling narratives while racing. (You could put them on the track for visual tracking and to add granularity if desired – I just keep the rivals' dice in view of the players.)
- No, the idea is that the rivals (and the players) are all moving too quickly to track – once again thinking more in terms of a sports movie than a sporting event, unless the narrative has them way ahead of the players or something else that arises during the game.
- PC positions are also maintained abstractly. The most common hazard they will encounter is an attack from a rival. That being said, if it makes sense in the narrative to have the players fall behind, you definitely can have them separate from the pack.
- It is assumed the rivals are making their checkpoints – the idea here is to eliminate GM rolling as much as possible to keep the focus on the players and the quick pace of the race. The only check that actually affects the outcome of the race is the final one that everyone makes as a group.
- Since teams win collectively, eliminating rivals is a surefire way to win the race. Also, the bingo cards give them rewards that include hurting/humiliating rivals for gold.
- Once again, this is meant to be abstract to minimize cognitive load for the GM. But if you have zoomed in on a specific rival and want to apply the crash and burn to them – go for it. The last thing I wanted was to make a race feel slower by adding more bookkeeping for the GM (it was WAY more granular in my first few drafts, and this just helps keep things moving).
Abstract damage and boost – if you are using the DEATHRACE environment, any level of damage – just use the BURN RUBBER rules. But if a player specifically is dealing SEVERE damage, feel free to rule that the dice range could increase from 1–2 for minor damage, 1–3 for major, or 1–4 for severe (increasing it by 1 for each threshold).
But if your players are using RIGS outside of a race, they still use their SPEED DIE when making attacks against normal adversary stat blocks. (Basically, this was a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too situation, where the lack of space in the zine prohibited me from giving a more detailed explanation.)
As far as multiple targets, I leave that to you and your discretion. A single dice roll keeps things moving, but multiple allows for randomized results. I would say you could switch between methods to match the moment – if things are dragging, you might want to roll less, but if things are tense, you might want to roll each.
The overall philosophy is: keep it simple and quick – until the narrative needs you to zoom in more.