The car just doesn't go fast enough.
I managed to beat the first one against taurus by just being lucky and having the game glitch out but it's not happening at the 2nd race

I'm holding down the 8 key, the car just doesn't go fast enough, but you're saying it's easy.
There aren't any engines to salvage yet

Have you limited your framerate yet? The game is completely broken beyond 30-40 fps. Physics and AI just breaks down if the game renders too fast.

I force a frame rate limit on my nvidia chipset using a third party program called "nvidia Inspector".

The mission you just described is easy!
:)
If you're playing Interstate '76 with the mouse and keyboard, you are not going to be able to complete any of the missions past this point. Why?

Because you need a USB compatible game controller with at least 10 buttons to maneuver Groove's Dodge Challenger. I'm not having any of those problems. I don't even activate 3D acceleration as the game wasn't originally intended for it. Interstate '76 actually runs faster without 3D acceleration.
I'm using a standard Dell laptop to run Interstate '76 and the game blazes frame rates comfortably.

I hope you did not misunderstand my post. You need relatively LOW frame rates for the game to function. Above 40 gameplay becomes completely broken. Don't be afraid of 10-30 fps, because that is how it used to run on 75mhz pentiums back when the game was released.

I used to play Interstate '76 on a Pentium 166mhz when the game first came out. The game didn't run at optimal speeds at the time.
I didn't misunderstand you; You're talking frame rates. I'm talking appearance.
The frame rates are neither too fast or too slow for me.
Most gamers want to activate their dedicated video cards to handle the game's appearance. I am saying that I am OK with jagged pixels in Interstate '76 because that's what the game was originally supposed to look like. The only issue I am having with Interstate '76 on modern computers is that the color palette becomes distorted and sometimes I have to leave certain Windows open to clear this. Other than that, Interstate '76 runs silky smooth... like butter.

:)

I'm using the nglide patch from the forum but the cars still bounce around and drive on 2 wheels when doing a sharp turn, but at least the game actually runs

Does anyone have a video of how this game's driving physics are supposed to look?

When you're talking about Interstate '76 driving physics, apparently you must be talking about how the cars behaves when in-gear, rolling on inclines, rolling off declines, paved & unpaved roads, speed, distance & objects traveling in motion such as a vehicle launching off ramps, etc.
I don't believe this example answers your question directly but here's a video that demonstrates 3 different render modes (software, d3d, 3dfx). As you already know, I prefer software mode. There are videos that follow after this one that you should be able to find what you're looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duMLPJsyVpQ

Jesus Christ, stop overcomplicating things based on semantic deturpations of what people are trying to say! You haven't been answering absolutely *anything*, just avoiding the questions by giving semi-elaborate excuses and talking about how you like the game and how great it is.

All BananaJane is trying to see is how the freaking game was supposed to look when nothing wrong with it is happening, i.e. no wobbly-wheels, no corrupt AI, no bugs, no color glitches. I didn't play the game when it was originally released, on the hardware and operative systems of its time, when I assume it would have ran flawlessly, the way it was meant to be. From what I understand, that's what BananaJane is asking for.

The fact is that this game is bugged as hell. I don't regret buying it, but even with the launcher I never know what kind of bug or glitch I'll encounter during my playthroughs. Also, the launcher worked perfectly with my older AMD machine with an ATI GPU, but I encountered major issues when trying to run it on my Intel with nVidia GPU and on my AMD with AMD GPU. It's not an exact science and, yes, those early races are easy when your game is behaving the way it was supposed to. You're coming across as a pretentious douche who likes to brag about how "über l33t pro" they are at video games, and that BananaJane is a "n00b" who can't even win the early races, when the truth is this game is utterly unplayable on some systems, and even when running it on more compatible ones is never a sure thing.

I don't know if the video link you provided us with showcases the game running flawlessly, the way it was meant to run when it came out, years ago. I highly doubt BananaJane wanted to compare the different rendering or whatever modes of the game, they only wanted a way to compare how the game is running now on their computer to it running *flawlessly*, the way it was meant to be running.

Hope this clarified things.

First of all...

My name is not Jesus Christ.
It's HEF, although you may call me the Messiah.

:)

Second, you didn't clarify anything. You rudely interjected a discussion between 2 persons and befuddled the point between both parties.

Let BananaJane speak for her/his self.

I didn't know rendering mode affected the actual gameplay, thanks! This helps a lot.
I'll try switching between them

HEF, I sincerely apologize for my previous post. It was, indeed, rude of me, and I'm sorry. I was the one pretending to "know" what BananaJane meant or needed to know, not you, and I stand corrected. I honestly think I have to admit when I'm wrong or being plain stupid, and this is one of those situations, so I hope there's no harm done.

Again, sorry for any inconvenience and for my brash rudeness and downright stupidity.

The last segment, the 3dfx rendered gameplay footage, appears to be running at a locked 30-40 fps which closely mirrors the performance of 1997 gaming computers. The cars are not supposed to handle like a typical racing game though, but rather they feel both very heavy yet also very responsive. You can easily slam the steering wheel left and right, making the car bank hard without losing traction. Your car won't weave back and forth, it steers very quickly, reacting to your wheel input immediately. You can drive in circles at fairly high speeds, though the cars make fairly wide turns.

The software rendered segment is not frame rate capped, rendering too fast, screwing up the AI, camera, physics, even the clouds are moving too fast. The person who made the video was probably unable to lock the FPS in this mode.