That's more or less the idea. Decided on doing something like this after stumbling across the movie Redline (the good one)

The race will transition from track to track via lacunae (singular: lacuna) Not so much gateways as proper gaps between one plane and the next. Hard to miss since the rest of a plane will just be 'missing' around these anomalies. I haven't plotted the course in its entirety yet, but the first stretch will be the typical Fire-Ice-Earth-Air progression. All needed details will be provided by the race announcer, as he summarizes the race for his viewership--condensing recent action, color commentary and foreshadowing upcoming obstacles.