There's definitely no protection from the random number generator giving you 3 cars all in line with each other. The best high-scores are the ones that require an RNGsus blessing though ;)
After learning F-Zero used the SNES's "mode 7," for 3D, we looked to Turbo Racing & they did different sprites & just moved them up/down within a particular zone on the screen to simulate perspective. The original plan was to use 3D CSS transforms to rotate/translate an SVG map, but we couldn't make that solution appear pixelated like on an NES.