Ok, just logged off after a dozen of Eliminator races. How's it? Very fun.
Here is how it works.
As soon as the boost is available after the race starts a countdown begins and the last in the pack gets eliminated at the end of it. This not an "elimination per lap" race. The countdown is always ticking so whoever finds himself in the last position when it reaches zero is out. This means a race can actually end even during the first lap. There is no laps count indeed. Once a guy is elimitaed, the countdown resets. Also, since the countdown never stops, it adds a bit of strategy to the race. Say you are last but you are close enough to the second to last guy to attemp a takeover. You might want to wait for the countdown to reach -5 secs before surpassing him cos that would mean instant death for him. Got what I mean? It's a bit like passing the bomb.
That's not all.
Countdown can be set to be of 20 to 60 secs by the host, meaning a 12 players race with a 60 secs countdown will last exactly 11 minutes.
But here comes the cool part: the "shockwave" and the "boost death". They can be both turned on or off by the host.
The shockwave is exactly what you are guessing: when the eliminated explodes, the shockwave of the explosion affects whoever is nearby him.
The boost death option makes it so that once the countdown reaches zero, the eliminated player doesn't explode immediately but basically becomes a barely manouverable rocket you can try and direct into the pack in front of you in order to cause damage. If the shockwave option is set to ON, you can easly figure out what this means.
Once you are dead, you become spectator. As such, you can watch remaining players via the standard behind the vehicle view. You can also voice chat with everyone. While rather cool, this "mode" is affected by some serious hiccups resembling lag issues (basically u see vehicles teleporting from time to time - hope they fix this).
Ah, forgot to say wrecks of those eliminated stay on the track. They dont disappear.
More general stuff I noticed. I guess there were fixed with the latest patch:
1 - The XMB Players Met section finally shows players you met in MotorStorm.
2 - Voice chat during loading screen doesn't screw up near the end but stays crisp and clear.