Just to confirm, beta build can't be used for runs, right?

7D Super update made significant changes to the 7D splitting it into the A Class 7D Super and moving a tuned down version of the old 7D (with better handling) to B class. Additionally several OOB points have been patched including City and Twin Glen. Not sure how version differences should be handled, but I'm certain AFTNRC and ARTNRC will look very different in the current version.

Although it doesn't have any videos or replays available, I think a link to the ranking site should probably be available here since the current IL times listed can be a bit misleading to newcomers that wander here.

https://ranking.skydrift.info/en/index

Additionally, top 100 times can be seen with /records+filters in the url. Ex:
https://ranking.skydrift.info/en/records?course_id=0
for the top 100 on Mari-Circuit 1
or
https://ranking.skydrift.info/en/records?course_id=1&character1=1
to see all the Forest of Magic times featuring Marisa
or
https://ranking.skydrift.info/en/records?course_id=2&character1=2&character2=2
to see all the double Sakuya times on human village.

Have you given A class a try? I can't imagine someone having a go at the Raptor and saying that monster is easy to drift in. Other than a couple cars in C class, all the cars feel very different and have their own challenge to them, and A class especially feels like quite the challenge to get optimal times in. Of course no reason to stick with the game if you aren't having fun with it, but lack of challenge is a surprising reason to drop it with how hard most of A class seems to be.

Requesting Time Attack categories:

Full Game:
All Tracks First Variants (Day/A for the most part)
All Tracks All Variants
No Upgrades maybe? Too slow for me to bother with though.

ILs:
IL for each variant of each course with an Upgrade and a No Upgrade category

imo IGT should be used exclusively for IL runs. Kind of torn on IRL vs IGT for full game runs, but lean toward IGT with how wildly load times can vary for this game. That would also make it easier to change jets/upgrades between levels which could be cool.

Says the link is expired...

First of all, the stats on the character select screen don't tell the full story. There are some very impactful stats that are hidden in the code, and you can see full stats here: https:/​/​docs.​google.​com/​spreadsheets/​d/​1_5_5GcfLbVVIfoqVaIuVjwSsrpfQgmM3UTaCicZD8n8/​edit#gid=2000748679
It's slightly out of date because stats are handled server-side now, and can no longer be data-mined.

Now for each stat:
Speed - Top ground speed, hard to determine how much this matters due to no speedometer

Air - Top air speed, correlates strongly with the hidden "Elevator" stat that determines how much air you can get and how quickly you fall

Boost/Acceleration - How quickly you can accelerate and how much of a speed boost you get from switching or going through rings. Boost lets you go above your max ground/air speed. This is one of the most important stats.

Drift (Cornering & Grip) - The drift stat on the character select screen is a combined representation of cornering, which is how well you can turn while drifting, and grip which is how well you can turn without. These two values are pretty close for most characters, and most people find it easier to control characters with higher cornering than grip, even when both are low.

Mass - Only used in multiplayer, affects how much you knock others away when colliding/how little you get knocked.

Spell - Determines how quickly your meter fills, and how much meter you get from rings.

Two important stats that are hidden are drift slip and drift add.

Drift slip determines how far you slide out when drifting. Compare Suika to Clownpiece for an example of how much difference this makes. Both have bad drift, but Suika slides way out, whereas Clown hardly slips at all. A high drift slip is harder to control, but is generally agreed to be faster than low drift slip.

Drift add is kind of hard to explain, but it affects how much you can alter the course of your drift. Most speedy and powerful characters have 0 for this. All technicals have 3. Cirno and Yukari have 1, and not other values are used.

All stat values come from the board character, but the rider is used for the last word pulls in multiplayer. Both characters LW meters (yellow bar) charge simultaneously, and the charge time varies by character. When using double of one character, the charge time is the same, but pulling a last word will deplete both meters.

Sea of Tranquility was made several seconds longer in patch 2.04 by the addition of a new segment to the track. The track IL leaderboards will need to be reset, or branched off to another category. Probably the same for full game runs.