The impressive thing to me is the level of traction needed to do something like this. It seems they're taking old tricks and building a "sucker car". https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a32350/jim-hall-cha... Still neat stuff. Race sanctioning bodies will need to update their rules or these will just be one off bragging rights.
In Micromouse ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromouse ) - a competition where autonomous devices solve a mouse maze - the fastest competitors are all using fans to increase traction (and thus speed).
However, a small caveat that might be worth considering is that while the suction indeed increases speed, it might be more accurate to say that it primarily improves acceleration instead of car speed: The issue often lies with achieving rapid acceleration rather than with maintaining high speed. Even systems with relatively low traction can reach high speeds given enough time and distance, but the ability to accelerate quickly is crucial in competitions like Micromouse.