This is a rule idea for the races that I had a while back to make them more valuable as you do better with them: sponsorship points, similar to 'tips' in Diner. Each race that you place third or better in attracts more sponsors that inrease the net worth of your racing career, expressed as a percentage (eg., +2% for third, +3% for second, +5% for first). At the very end of the game, after the last ball drains, the sponsorship points are tallied into a special one-off percentage bonus of your entire game's score, that's then added on. Victory in a tournament could be possible to pull off at the very last moment with this bonus, which by definition stacks with *everything* else in the entire game.

Any thoughts?

This is also my thinking as well, behind the 'sponsorship' idea. If the races only affect other races, and people are inclined to skip them anyway, there's no additional incentive to play them. If, however the races enhance the value of *everything* to a degree, the dominant strategy for expert players becomes to perform well more evenly across the entire game, in order to maximize the score potential.

Gears for races is an idea I like a lot. Keep it simple: +1 gear for third, +2 gears for second, +3 gears for first.

Perhaps when the ball enters the scoop, before the race starts the player has a few seconds with the left or right flipper to choose which reward the race can give them; gears (+1 / +2 / +3) or sponsorship (+3% / +5% / +10%). This would open up a whole lot more potential strategy, as well as quick decisions based on the style of play and how well the player is doing.