If you want to make a game more rapidly, why not try 3D Gamestudio? It has templates for 'click together' games like racing (although with cars)- and it has built in model and game world editors.
Top it off it has a free version too.
This sounds like an advert but it is a good tool.
Out of interest I am making (or thinking) of making a racing game, although more of an evolution of Wipeout.