Okay, let’s see what would fulfil this…

If we make it a post-cyberpunk setting with Mad Max scavenging influence, we can have half-scrapped cyberpunk vehicles racing through derelict cities. The neon lights still work most of the time, being run by automated systems that don’t realise that none of the products they are advertising are being made any more. The wastes outside the city are harsh, but at least something grows there and the corporate law enforcement drones don’t leave the city centre often, so people only return to the old metropolis to rip things out of it.

Your base is producing fuel. It’s your lifeline in the wasteland - everyone needs it, you’re good at making it. There’s a lot of fancy tech in the city that you can salvage to turn towards automating this process. It also means that you can always run your vehicle. The better the fuel you make, the faster your car and the more components you can buy from other people in the wastes. You can improve your workshop too, if you want to tilt towards DIY instead of trading for upgrades.

The process of raiding the city is a dangerous one. You’re hugely outgunned by the drones, so you have to consider your routes and be evasive. Drive from cover to cover, employ a little rocket-boost to dodge to the sides or zip across an open area. If you don’t make it out, well maybe you did on foot without your car or maybe you just play as the next fearless driver to take the last one’s place - either way, you start over again at your base, and you can try to recover what you gathered from the wreckage of the last run.

This stretching the definition of “racing” a bit, and if this game existed I’d definitely want the option to go actually just race through the city too, but I think that’s the best idea I have for welding them all together