Well I'm not a great player by any means and frequently get my ass handed to me online. But there have been a few times I got an early lead and just breezed through the race not knowing what happened to the competition. And that's not exactly satisfying either. I'm sure those people who get an early lead would like a bit of competition.

It's really not about the racing, but the weapons. And, as the weapons have created the problem, I reckon the solution lies there too. Mario Kart (though I find the blue shells awfully cheap) is a good example of helping people at the back by giving them better weapons. That could be applied to WO in some way.

That or simply do what the racers want - really pull back massively on the weapons throughout the game.