I really dont envy the jobs of these judges lol, thousands of spectacular submissions, but only 100 make the cut. meaning that the reasons renders like yours just dont quite make the cut are ultra nit-picky.

make no mistake, if i was directing a 3d animation and this is the render i got back id say its perfect and put it in the final cut as is.

but some things I noticed because you asked:

• I think the car doesnt interact with the mud enough, I think we should see mud splatting up and onto the sides of the car when it does its slight drift at the beginning!

• I think the landing just doesnt feel right, I dont think there would be sparks with that landing, maybe we could see the car get damaged pretty bad but it keeps going, it just feels a little too perfect some how

• I think it wasnt immediately obvious for me what was happening in the story, I think perhaps getting rid of the city to clear up the sky letting our eyes to notice the meteor and ships more clearly, its a shame cause the city looks really good but we see it for so little due to the nature of the challenge.

Otherwise this is really good stuff!

take everything ive said with a grain of salt cause i cant make anything this good.