Not sure I’d include Escape from Atlantis in this. I mean, sure, you are moving your people from point A (and B, C, D, E, etc.) to point W, X, Y, or Z, but you could be the first to get some people to safety and still lose, or the last to get them there and still win. As such, it’s not really a race.
Downforce, also, doesn’t necessarily fit, as it’s more betting on the outcome of the race more than trying to get your car across the finish line first. Same with Camel Up (if I remember correctly, I only played it once years ago). Both have a racing theme, but don’t really represent a race in the mechanics of needing to cross a finish line.
To answer the question, I don’t really have any racing games in regular rotation. Flamme Rouge hasn’t hit the table in possibly years. Heat has only seen the table in a few solo games I’ve played, though I’d like to get it in front of my friends at some point (not counting BGA plays with forum members). Thunder Road: Vendetta has yet to see the table in any form. Most recent would be The Quest for El Dorado, and even that’s been over a year now, I think.
I think I can throw in Treasure Island as a race game, as the first person to find the treasure wins. Another game I haven’t played in quite some time. I don’t think my wife likes it very much 
As for what makes a good racing game, it has to give the player decisions to make. So a simple roll and move is boring, there’s no decisions. Just playing the highest card you have every time is boring. Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders fall into this category. Sorry (or Trouble or Aggravation, etc.) barely avoids it because at least you have multiple pieces to work with, so you can choose which one is going to move on a given roll of the die.
Flamme Rouge avoids this by adding the hills, exhaustion and slipstreaming, plus only allowing you to use a given card one time before it’s removed from your rider’s deck. Moving as far as you can could be a horrible decision, depending on the current circumstances.
Heat avoids this by setting speed limits at the corners with a heat penalty if you go over it, making lower gears remove heat from your hand, and slipstreaming. Going as far as you can could result in a spinout, setting you back horribly, or could set up another player to pass you through slipstreaming, putting them in a better position.
El Dorado avoids this by giving you a number of paths to choose from and allowing you to build your deck in a way that ideally fits well with your chosen path. Just going as far as you can without planning could see you stuck behind hexes you don’t have the cards to pass through, forcing you to backtrack.
I haven’t played Thunder Road yet, so I can’t fully comment on that, but by giving you multiple vehicles to choose from and making it so the race can’t end until one player is eliminated, you have to split your focus on keeping at least one vehicle in striking distance of the lead while trying to remove all the vehicles of at least one opponent. Meanwhile, they’re trying to do the same to you, so you’re trying to avoid that happening at the same time.