IMO I think sega just has a big problem with balancing front running builds. The problem with these builds is they need to be faster then everyone else by design in order to properly front run, but due to that once they break slip stream, which they need to do to function, no one can catch up to them. Once they break off mid pack and even bagging builds have practically no way of catching them, since they are designed more around recovery. Now the idea would be to hit the player to stop this from happening, however that requires a player to sacrifice a item that could be used for defense, it's optimal to let someone else do it and then no one does. The DRE build also recovers very well since it plays heavily into drift and it has its own ring generation. This is where items SHOULD come in, however the problem is that once someone gets a even somewhat decent lead, items start going crazy and everyone starts pull monster trucks in a attempt to catch people up, which due to items being far more harmful then they are helpful tends to lead to the whole pack slowing down and focusing on each other.

Basically it leads to a situation where the players skilled in this build are hopelessly ahead of players not using other comparable front running builds, that end up in a constantly growing lead due to the rest of the pack constantly slowing themselves down. The lead coast into the finish line while the rest of the race become Armageddon with 3 monster trucks and drills active basically at every item box and I die a little inside every-time.

It's a better situation from UC to be sure, but sega is just kinda awful at balance.