One thing that might be fun, and challenging, is if you used the real weather from the racing location at the time of the race. Everyone has internet access obviously, so link to a weather forecast and whatever the weather is for that day, that's what it is for the race. It would have to be done manually by the race host on console.
About the draft, putting names into a hat makes it random, it doesn't mean someone won't have an advantage. The top qualifier in the pro class could easily pull the top semi-pro qualifier's name out of a hat and then you'd have a race for second all season. If you truly want to even things up, take the top qualifier in pro and match him up with the lowest qualifier in semi-pro, 2nd with 2nd last etc. What that is done, combine the times and then do the same thing for the amateur class. Top combined time is paired with the slowest amateur...etc.