Agreed, amplificated.
The host should always give a few (more) seconds after he changed whatever parameters. It's especially annoying when the host keeps pressing the X-button and does not leave you any choice in choosing a different ship or time for leaving the race. It's even more annoying when you're in the ship selection and suddenly the host starts the race. Because of that, more than a few times I had to use crafts I can barely handle.

In face the game should have some mechanisms that prevent the host from acting „unfair“. E.g. if the host changes the settings, he has to wait at least ten seconds before he can start the race. Or if people are changing their ship there could be some kind of countdown for both, host and the player who's selecting his favorite craft.
And those symbols signaling the mode, track, speed class etc. could be colored red or something when changed, so you can directly see what's been changed by the host.
But that's dreaming anyway

But I agree: It's almost most annoying if you've all the tracks in the game's order; Track A forward, Track A backwards, Track B forward, Track B backwards etc.
Or combinations like Track A forward, Track A forward, Track A forward, Track A backwards, Track A backwards …