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I wrote this variant after playing a few times. I don't really think it's a better game, just different. It's for three players only, at this stage - I may think of rules to expand it to other numbers later. (Actually, you could play it with two players: one player gets black-yellow-orange. I don't think the game is very good for two players, though, but this variant wouldn't be any worse than the real rules for two.)
No money is used in this game - leave it in the box.
This variant has only one race, but that's a three-lap race. Since you don't have enough cards to go three laps, you'll have to draw more during the game.
Split the cars into three sets: black-yellow, orange-blue, red-green. Put the appropriate "10" cards with each set, and the appropriate switch card. The black car starts in the pole position, the red car is 2nd, the blue 3rd, the orange 4th, the green 5th, the yellow 6th.
Deal out the remaining cards evenly to all players. The dealer starts by simply saying which pair of cars he wants: black-yellow, red-green, or blue-orange. The next player then claims a pair, and the last player takes what's left over. The last player (and only the last player) can call for a partial redeal if desired: each player discards five cards, they are shuffled, and then redealt, five to each player.
The game begins as normal, and play proceeds by the rules until each player has only four cards left. At that point, if anyone wishes to discard any cards, they may. You may discard your whole hand, if desired. The used and discarded cards are shuffled, discards are filled back up to four cards first, then the rest are dealt out to all players. Repeat this process when all players are down to four cards again. That's the last deal, however, and cars have to finish the race with the hands they have at that point.
As cars complete the third lap, place them in the appropriate finishing area. Instead of money, simply say that every $1,000 is a point. So first place gets 200 points, second 150 points, etc. High score wins. In case of tie, the tied player with the car that finished earlier wins.