Increasing how many platters are on the course does help, but the real problem was that some go faster than a car at full nitro or they take to flying above where a car can reach well before their full takeoff. In Tokyo one of them has a tendency to drop where the player has to jump over (left path getting ready to go into the car park). Then there's a couple that one sometimes runs out of nitro chasing after the earlier ones so they sometimes cannot be caught up to by a LONG way.
I get that the developers wanted to make it challenging, but they pushed the bounds just a little too far and made many that were full on impossible to get. Just a small nudge of not taking off so soon, not pushing the speed of the vehicle so drastically, keeping within reach just a little longer, could go a long way.
OH, right and a few take impossible turns...a player just cannot match. I've managed to stop and get 1 of those to hit me back, but mostly it ends up better to forget it and just focus on rebuilding nitro for the next chase.
Could you add a "feather trader" at the end of the event. A kind of last call for people who nearly got a prize... e.g. turn in a specified number of feathers or combination of feathers to get the last of a needed set? depending on how lucky people have been some may need to trade only a few, others may need to trade most of there's but people will be glad they got something instead of just
(I'm guessing that will be the comp).