Then I'm afraid I don't know what you are looking for or maybe I do not understand you, my friend.
The Sonic corner you referred to is the hardest corner on that course so, naturally, you'll have online people who are on a lower skill level than you that will tend to crash on that section or attempt to use the wall for assistant. All other corners on that course are more or less straight, and the advance and expert courses has plenty of tricky corner.
In stock car racing, every driver are trained to professional standards. Crashing involve risking lives and intentional crashing will give you a ban, but it doesn't mean that it won't be done such as cutting and fighting for the racing line. So if you play against the expert players in Daytona USA, then you won't experience much of what you have mentioned but that doesn't mean that it don't exist. Also, as you noted, this is a video game which should be all about having "fun" and foremost, therefore all possibilities should be open for consideration. The good news is that this is something that the developers DID consider and they balanced that between the realm of "realism" and "fantasy", like I mentioned in VERSUS BATTLECAST (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzfcJJsz-Fo).
The key thing you have to consider is whether the mechanics are created in a way to make everything fair? Well, let's review that:
* When you typically crash in the game your speed drops down to around 100km/h; you don't stop.
* When you are in 3rd position your vehicle kicks into "continuous drafting mode" so you can catch up to the rest of the pack.
* You can drift in such a way that would allow you to put your car in a position to take advantage of vehicles that keeps going to the outside on a corner (I did this yesterday and it was glorious!)
* You have the option to slow down and let the crashers crash into the corner.
* If you are a skillful player then no other players other than another expert would be able to catch up with you (e.g. SixFortyFive is the best Daytona USA player on this board).
* Your car won't be penalised heavily when you crash.
Yes, all that sounds fair/balanced to me so, in the end of the day, it all comes down to your skill level.