Over the years playing the game, there have been two common mistakes and bad habits that many players including myself have done over the years:

Overusing the Booster "Boostaholic": While the booster makes you go significantly faster, it is finite and tied to the heat rate, cool rate, and their heat to cool ratio on how much you can use it. What is a common mistake is getting used to the rapid cool down times on max upgrades and easy to use Ebe Endocott, Bullseye Navior, and Toy Dampner regardless of upgrades, and applying that to every pod in the game including no upgrade pods. The best way to use the booster varies from track to track, pod to pod, and max upgrade to no upgrade runs. What does apply across all cases though is to use the booster for off road paths, crossing major gaps, and making sure that long boosts are as long as possible, and short boosts are just long enough to get the speedboost while just short enough to not compromise future long boosts.

Tapping the brakes to kill the boost: While tapping the brakes to kill the boost is more reliable than letting go of the accelerator only, it comes at the cost of lost momentum in runs. There are very few tracks in the game where you have to use the brakes on, and they are: Zugga Challenge for the Dozer Executioner for the Tube Drop at low framerates due to loss of control from tilting in the tubes. The snaking bends on Grabvine Gateway and Fire Mountain Rally The Ice Crevasse on Andobi Mountain Run The first hairpin turn on Abyss The sharp chicanes on The Boonta Classic and Ando Prime Centrum. Tracks where it is recommended to use the brakes on until you get comfortable with your pod and the track: The caution wall turn coming out the speed boost tunnel on Scrapper's Run The sharp hairpin turn back into the arena on Bumpy's Breakers The final full 180 degree hairpin turn on the Malastare 100