I agree. The old Tux Racer is better for the new one not adding anything significantly, but getting less efficent. The name is as pure as it needs to be. Amiga music in the background and tracks, that can be modded without any tools.
As it's an SDL based game, it still runs on Windows 98. And on this machine from 2000 it's undoubtably one of the fastest and best looking 3D games. Well, if everything needs to be hidden in fog for performance reasons, make a racing game in a foggy environment. That ice effect looks super fantastic, which is surprising for an open-source game without big budgets.
Would you go and rewrite Tux Racer or just add some features to the existing one?