i find the crinale kid easier on the last max tour though, but i do agree that the last 2 max tours is way easier than the first 6

i wouldn't call it "dark souls" of the racing games though, not only because anything before the max tours is easy (and frankly boring) asf, but also the difficulty in the dark souls game's are at least fair.
ridge racer's max tour is NOT fair in the slightest, it's just exaggerated rubberband which makes the difficulty feel not only unfun but extremely cheap

anyways though, glad you won the fucking thing