Street racing "within reason" is a tough thing to regulate. While I agree that two cars running wide open on an empty freeway is reasonably safe, too many people (way too many, in fact) are racing on surface streets with cross streets. It's not that uncommon for someone to pull out of a cross street and right into the middle of an impromtu race - not a good thing.

As for stricter driving tests, I'm all for it. Top Gear just did a piece on drivers in Finland and why that country has produced more WRC Champions than any other, and why they have more F1 Champions per capita (an amusing statistic, but still) than any other country. It takes 3 YEARS OF TRAINING before you can get a drivers license in Finland and you have to be able to control a power slide before passing, among other maneuvers that most Americans would probably consider professional stunt driving! When I moved to California 19 years ago I had to take a brief written exam and nothing more to get a CA license. Since then I just give the state a few dollars every few years and they happily renew it, with no clue whether I know how to pilot a motor vehicle or not. And from the behavior I regularly see on local roads, most people around here take driving as a passive activity. Many seem to be unaware that there are even other vehicles on the road with them.

Having spent a fair bit of time on various road courses, it's also painfully obvious that most drivers have far less talent behind the wheel than they think they do. They tend to run out of talent long before their cars do. I'd rather they keep that sort of activity on the track though, not on public roads.