People made the same arguments about introducing/mandating safety features in cars and yet here we are in the future, with plenty of race car drivers.
There are still teams so tight on budget they choose their track¹ based on it not requiring fireproof gloves as part of safety equipment, etc.
I have heard similar stories about needing to avoid tracks with safety rules due to unaffordable expense of:
- Safer bladder style fuel tanks - Head-and-neck restraints (to avoid having your head detach from your spine like Dale Sr.) - Fuel line and engine fire-wall sizing - Helmet and firesuit regulatory tag-checks (every additional second in a bad fire matters, old aren't safe, sometimes in more ways than one).
¹Or don't race at all, anymore.
Edit to add the reason no one is afraid of their terrible, awful lack of skill in this apparently dangerous activity is at least in part due to the risk homeostasis effect of increased safety features.