Attitude is everything. As an instructor for HPDE club I get to see everything. The best students are those that recognize that they aren't going to be Mario Andretti, ever, but if they pay attention they'll go faster. This goes on the street too, those with a chip on their shoulder probably won't ever figure it out.

Now anothing to consider is that racers as a group are not necessarily the safest drivers. Recently saw a thing on TLC channel about causes of accidents vrs driving style. A lot of it comes down to the ability to accept risk. There is skill involved too, but those that are willing to accept risk are those most likely to get in trouble. True for most anything. So take your average racer - good skills, good coordination, good amounts of self confidence (I can do this!) and a pretty decent ability to accept risk, especially in a car. Put it together and you've got someone who is more likely to get in an accident because of the last two items.

Its kind of a double edge sword. By showing someone what the car can do, it can expand their confidence level and therefore they drive closer to the limit without bringing any more common sense to the table.

One thing you can get through someones head is distances used up in slowing down. Spend an afternoon working a really high speed turn, walk the turn, then go drive it. It is truely amazing to see how many hundred feet can get used up trying to straighten out a car at high speed. 75mph is roughly 110 feet per second.