Re: Nitrous- not saying it's a good idea, but...
ok, i reluctantly understand, i guess. it just seemed so simple in that movie, the fast and the furious.
yah - those movies are great for portraying ultimate urban legend.
I'm not saying Nitrous won't do what you imagine - in the on demand mode. (in the trickle mode it just doesn't pay off)
Now - nitrous is pretty common in a non-hard-contact form of racing - Where you basically activate it via a only-come-on-at-full-throttle kinda like an auto-trans kick-down... Oddly enough there are many forms of racing where it is used like that** - but again, those have a much less likely occurrence of car-to-car (and resulting very high-g) collision.
**Those would be like Off road, Monster-truck, almost all forms of drag (include pulls and sand-hill climbs) - and even some hill-climb courses.
... I suspect the biggest risk is in this scenario:
collision. main regulator freezes open or cracks. feed line open somehow near source of oil/fuel/brake-fluid. Ignition.
A lot of what-ifs, but unfortunately for road racing, not enough.
...and because of the complete burn-down and speed of burn, our (typical track) safety response time wouldn't be adequate enough to make the insurance peoples very happy...