I can win 50,000 CR from one race in single player against easy AI with zero challenge. But I just beat someone in rivals to finally climb to the top 500 times on Alps out of 30,000+ different player’s times. I got 6,000 CR for completing the race and maybe 5,000 CR for the “rivals ranking” which feels really unrewarding considering the top 500 times are very difficult to beat. A million times harder than beating the AI. I understand people have abused the reward system in the past by purposely slowing down during races to climb the ranks one person at a time and rack up tons of CR but by downgrading the old bounty system for beating tougher times it makes the entire grind in rivals feel lackluster.
Is there a way to make it so bounties for tougher opponents would pay out better but, in addition to beating people you get paid extra for how many people you beat with a single race? So if you jump ahead 100 people with a really good time you collect a larger payout. This would encourage people to not slow on purpose to climb the leaderboards one race at a time and just give it their best shot for a chance at winning more CR. This might encourage more people to play rivals too if their first race would give them decent CR for beating a bunch of low records on their first attempt. I dunno just a thought.