I sure want to clash my arguments with yours to check if my stand may change.
But I will make a new thread about such so we don´t hijack Tatoad´s quest.
On topic, I play around a few communities of gfx people, I´d say it is important to have a good figure about what is needed.
You can check lotus sprite sheet to see what is up, and in a case of a racer like that, there are too many options on game design that can change gfx completely, the amount and quantities.
If you are using scaling, maybe you just need the closest sprite version to the camera (no closest, a bit before) and a version of the cars sideways and a few sets up and a bit less down.
If you are using 3d cars plotted over the road, you may need less art and more coding.
If you are going the lotus way, you may want specific art for a variation of depth sprites. It is always good to check the sprite sheets of those games.
I can recommend some communities, but you must know what is exactly that you want, specially in quantities, if they are to take the job seriously.
I can help a bit every now and then, I really would like to do such project as I always loved those racers...have plans myself for such, but no time and I´m a noob coder when it comes to speed.
