The race isn't hard at all. The game basically gives you an instant-win button (the quick-use key for the Bash TV item). Just boost around for the first two laps, and then on the third lap, use the Bash TV item halfway through to destroy all the cars ahead of you.
Well, the graphics problems stem from a few different problems.
1) The game was made first for consoles and brought over to PC. iD feels that PC gaming just isn't what it used to be and will now be making games for consoles and porting to PC. BOOOO!
2) iD tried to make the game for PC be more compatible for the video cards and systems out there but in the end they're also blaming driver conflicts, the drivers out there for the cards just can't adequately do justice to the game, apparently.
I tried the AMD driver fix released myself but it didn't really fix anything, the game just sort of .. well, lagged, lagged so horribly that I couldn't even play, I just had to exit as soon as possible. It would seriously take me a couple of minutes just to move a few steps, it was just that laggy.
This is funny Becasue Pc gaming is on the rise and is predicted by Nvidea to surpass console gaming in a 2-3 years.
I want to thank JekaZ. I used the console code to slow down the race and I was able to complete the first one and then the second one for the Cuprino car. That helped immensely and now I can continue the game. For those of you who hate racing the console codes will help you win the race. Thanks again JekaZ Steve