I agree that it shouldn't be possible to cancel a race that has already begun, if I'm correct I've seen this just one time before, but I understand that's very annoying.
That's that automatic system when no people finish in the time of 20minutes or something. People can't cancel races themselves, not even admins can. We can only force start the race. If that thingy was to be removed, then when all the racers would die, then the race would last forever and new racers wouldn't be made. Even if an admin command would be added, then we can't assure that an admin is online all the time to cancel the race if needed.
I don't see any problems with this race canceling deal at all.
It would be nice tho if the minimum amount of racers would be set to two players.
So if the server is a little bit empty, or no one just likes to race at that time, the race still can go on with two players.
the price money for 3th place should be given back to the race host or be devided( 1st place gets more money than 2nd) over 1st and 2nd place.
This 3th place money could also be put in this donation pot suggested in another topic.
So people are little less dependant on a 3th person, and still can race if they like.