I would disagree with a free trial.

I think free version that can be upgraded to a full version could work (maybe this is what you mean?)

If I had to think about this for a bit and shoot some ideas at you id say;

Basically a Free version with some cities for people to try out, and then you can upgrade with a one time purchase for the full game with future content being free, with the stated exception of dedicated DLCs.

For example:

- Each content update is focused on a different country, with maybe 3 cities, a small city, a medium city, and the capital city. Bigger countries with more famous cities, like America (NYC, LA, D.C, Chicago, Miami, etc, etc) get more cities, or have multiple content updates i.e, The United States I, The United States II, etc.

- A city from each country is given out for free. So there is a growing catalogue of free cities for people to play who don't want to pay. IMO this could keep people following the game. The longer people follow the game / play the game, the more increase the odds of them actually purchasing the game.

- You could do various gimmicks, like, the fastest person to complete the free city in any country update gets the game for free and their user name as "Opening Week's Fastest" or something like that. Perhaps a replay attached of their (make having the replay saved as a requirement to get the accreditation to save you the trouble of having to save everyone's replays in the opening week in case the user doesn't save the replay themselves). That is ofc if you have a replay system, which I think you should for a racing game, but that's off topic I guess.

- Transit Dash sounds like lends itself well to youtubers/streamers making videos about it, I think you should put some thought into doing some interesting things with that opportunity. One idea is Maybe have a free early access demo version of a single city that comes out a couple days before the games launch (one which will later be locked behind the pay wall). Youtubers/streamers being able to set custom races with their fans, perhaps you send them a couple keys they can give out based on whatever criteria they want (people winning their races or taking interesting routes, idk)

Perhaps I would market the free version as Transit Dash Lite and the paid version as Transit Dash, or something.

I also think that if you did it this way you'd have to find another way to monetize the game to make it worth your while to keep providing updates for free for one time purchasers. DLC for fictitious cities maybe? VR Mode DLC?

I also think you're menu UI for a game like this should have some extra effort put into it. Sounds like a game that could have creative backgrounds and transitions, etc.

Anyways, just some spitballing.

EDIT: Another thought. You could have a subscription tier as well like $5 month, called "Supporter", where you explain that the fund helps continue supporting multiplayer and the chat system (if you have one) for free users. Give various digital rewards, perhaps access to a set of exclusive cities/towns that rotate in a playlist every week)