This time beats the previous WR by CYR-JUN [Gamest Submission Name : 今回をもって人生終了 さらばCYR-JUN] (3'19"42) set in 1992.
This game is very confusing.
To start, the sped-o-meter is a complete lie, sometimes you'll see it slowly rising to a max of 240 KM/H, this is a lie or a bug, your speed does not change from the range of 200 KM/H to 240 KM/H, as this sort of fake acceleration happens randomly by colliding with an enemy, or shifting gears.
Nitros will boost you to 300 KM/H (Real speed) and then "drop" you to a measly 223 KM/H, this speed is a lie, you drop down to 200 after a boost has worn off.
Next, is the slowdown. This game runs on a real time clock, meaning any sort of slowdown is actually lost time, so to get a better time, you need to take awkward lines in order to spawn less sprites, either jumps, running into enemy cars, or hitting rocks on the ground, which plays a special animation that despawns the dust trail sprites, resulting in less lag.
Downshifting also doesn't decrease speed very much, and is an instant way to gain additional traction to cut corners faster.
4