II've been practicing my Rookie runs and have been focused almost solely on mastering each tracks layout and drive patterns without giving too much thought about collecting Money Powerup$. I'm starting to wonder if I should put more effort into collecting those MP$ even at the cost of route efficiency since I'm noticing a lot of high-ranking runs get upgrades faster than me. I'm having trouble getting under 56 and suspect this might be the problem. Any advice on money and risk v reward would be really appreciated, thanks!

first world I generally focus a lot on the money management instead of the driving. You want to get the air blade asap and although a theoretical buy before first race of chem div A would be possible, buying after first race on chem 4th div a is the way to go. You need to get 13 packs out of th 25 available on the first 5 races AND get the lapping bonus on the third stage (the 8-shaped one). For the lapping bonus you mostly wanna place the spikes near the ramp just like I did here:

After you get the air blade i look for money asap to get the first turbo upgrade (should be after third race of chem div a) so i can get the lap bonus on last stage of chem iv div a race, this way I can buy the first engine upgrade super early. On drakonis B i still get money when i can but on A onwards i shift the focus on driving more than getting money.

Money in this game is pretty tight and the final time is pretty dependent on it. The faster you get the upgrades, the more usage you can get from them.

Good luck on your runs dude.

Man thank you so much. It was just a couple days ago I was messing with how to force that 1.3B lapping bonus rather than leaving it to RNG. I can't wait for my replacement controller to get here so I can get back to practicing.