Timed overtakes are strong—we are in agreement on that. If 2nd is confident in their personal defense, they don't need to attack 1st in situations they think are suspect, and doing so doesn't lose much besides the opportunity. However, at least in the games I've been playing, outright sandbagging to tailgate 1st doesn't seem like a consistently effective strategy.
Yeah, it's hard to say exactly how it works without the data to back it up. One thought might be to have rings not provide a boost--or a significantly lesser boost--when it's within its first second or two of existence, meaning second still needs to overtake by capitalizing on an item or better line/1st's mistakes.
A sudden whim, though; perhaps rings get more powerful based on how many other players have gone through it, meaning the further back you are the bigger the speed boost? Right now I believe it's just the length of the boost and size of the ring that increases (feel free to correct me on it), which tends to have diminishing returns if it's long enough to reach the next ring anyways, and doesn't really supersede the common speed-up items back of the pack gets. Either that or have boost stacking in some degree. If a certain speed threshold is reached, it could activate Sliptiding for improved control. It's worth noting I really just like going fast, though XP
In similar modes that assign constant points, like BallisticNG's Rush Hour or Team Race, I feel a mounting frustration when I can't break away, made even worse by the fact that it feels permanent. It guts high-stakes situations of their drama and excitement, and if I were to do anything like it, I'd probably have to take a look at some of the core assumptions about...uh, Race as a gamemode.
I mean, if I might spill an idea I've been thinking about for a while on you, it would be that points are accrued for many actions. Hitting other players with items, maintaining 1st/2nd/3rd for certain lengths of time (bonus for SPB chases, bigger bonus for 'stealing' the SPB! Also pity points for getting hit), maybe even more mundane actions like getting a rainbow spark or tricks. Placements provide a large point bonus and/or a multiplier, but a player that lead for most of the game before getting karted could still have a good placement in the end result.
As for lacking high-stakes if you've been stuck in the back, perhaps add a karma (Kartma?) point pool that builds up the more you're hit by items and the longer you're in the back. If you manage to catch up and take the top three positions near the end of the race, that pool quickly dumps into your permanent score to give you one last injection; not as large as if you'd been in first the entire time, but something that can quickly shoot you up the total point rankings.
Probably a difference in value judgements, yeah. Big wins from the back are great, but doing well for a whole race only to get rekt at the end is a great way to sour the next several races for me due to lingering frustration, at least for me X)
Obviously that would be a huge undertaking, though, which is why I hesitated to go all-in on it before. In my initial suggestion, what I meant was you'd just get >[Normal placement score as with every race + X Bonus] for staying ahead for a certainly length of time. In the elim servers yo get +1 for most damage and/or biggest combo, for example.