Those top speed records are literally complete nonsense. You collect money, buy the biggest power source you can get, put some metal around it with space to fit the 5 tons of gas and a driver in, and try to be faster than the mofos from xyz-contry. It's like the fight for the first moon landing between usa and ussr, just even more stupid (and more money involved maybe).
Did jet car people ever show genius in engineering? Did they really invent something that's useful today? Jet turbines? Fuel injection? Proper brakes? Airplane tires? other features?
No
Everything has been there (long) before, people building rocket cars have ALWAYS used technology that already existed. If it were for science purposes, speed records on wheels would be international affairs.
Concerning death rates for those attempts, many many people have died trying to break class records, just because there's no daily update in the news doesn't mean nobody died. Example: I've never heard of a fatal accident on the Isle of Man TT, at least not on the news.
With our track races it's just slightly different.. F1, DTM, nascar and
the like are for sure only testosterone and money on wheels... but at least they drive corners and have to brake. That's what keeps them closer to our normal cars, and sometimes, once in a while some F1 engineer invents something that IS useful. I can't remember what that was though... can you?
greetz
der butz