Quick note here, because I was there before the 1.0.4 patch. While ship score does equate to how good it is; it is not the be all end all. Usage of boosts and turns has a lot of weight to the final positions.
As I've posted the screenshot before, some races you can be under-weight and still punch hard.

As expected, this is how much punishment your ship can take before destruction.

Added onto this is how much heat your ship can withstand before you start burning up HP. If you want long burns of boost, this is your stat.

!! Do know, hitting your air brakes also helps cool down the engines !!
(Thanks, engineers. Maximize that efficency.)

As can be expected, this is how well your ship's side strafing is. Higher values means you can move to the left and right faster.

Beware, too much strafe compared to speed might mean you'll start grinding the inside of a wall. Work with what goes well with your muscle memory.

The equivilant to acceleration in most other racing games; with an extra twist of even more powerful boosts.
Beware that you don't go all in on thrust without getting some durability to level out the heat gain. Your double boosts work amazingly when you keep both going.

Steer is akin to your turning angle for cars; by lowering the time needed to rotate.

Like with Strafe, work with what works for you. Some people need it high for reflexive racing, while others could opt for sacrificing it and race a couple seconds ahead of their current position.

What it says on the tin, this is your vehicle's natural top speed.
(Though I suspect this doesn't effect your overall top speed while in boost. Further testing is needed with reguards to how high a double / triple boost can go.)

Stability is akin to how good your traction is to the track. The higher the score, the less drift you deal with. And with less drifting, that is more speed in corners.

Think of it like normal sim racing. You don't drift, because loss of grip means you are not putting down power to the road.

As you would expect, heavier gravity means you get pulled down to the surface faster. While lighter gravity pulls you to the surface slower.

Levels of gravity:
Extreme Gravity (You *will* get dragged around a lot. Reaction driving is rewarded more here.)
PS. Don't stay in the air long. You will be dragged downward after about 5 seconds.

Earth like (Average)

Low Gravity (Floatier ships in the air, harder to land quicker)

Zero Gravity (Absolutely no pull. Be aware, you don't get to fly forever!)

Since the change from Energy consumption to Heat production; the ambient temperatures of racetracks became a larger factor than ever before.

Be aware of your heat, don't burn your ship into a flaming wreck.

Levels of Temperature:
Very Hot (Maybe about 50% engine cooldown)

Hot (Maybe about 75% engine cooldown)

Normal (Baseline engine cooldown)

Cold (Untested. Maybe 125% engine cooldown)

(Seemingly no double cold temp as of the moment. Though I'd expect it would be Sub-Zero if it was)

In my *current* testing of tracks, and thanks to RetroSpectre. Atmosphere seems to be the density of oxygen atoms pushing against you. If we were in normal cars, this would be balanced in power to traction (with downforce helping).

We are in AG ships; Less molecules in the air means less that can push back against you.

Levels of Atmosphere:

High Density (Lesser Acceleration)
Normal (Normal Acceleration)
Thin Density (Faster Acceleration)


---Testing log---
Arcade preset Sulha:

MT Nereus (At the underwater jump, ran backward)
4.383 / 955 KM/H

Cloud Ocean (Aura start)
4.391 / 989 KM/H

Because of us telling nature that we don't need to care about the rain for racing, having gone magnetic. Nature now instead will throw even worse conditions at racers.

Conditions list:

Ice:
Like actual ice on tracks, it is a loss of grip. But since running your engines to the point of melting down is leauge standard; Ice affords the ability to push your times that much further.

Magma:
Hey, so y'know how ice helps cool down faster? Magma is the antithesis of that. Whenever you are mere feet away from the magma flows in the mines, you will start to gain heat if you aren't making use of airbrakes.
Plan for it, and take a durable ship to delay a heat explosion.

Do not forget, hitting your air-brakes helps with heat dissipation. Between a burnt ship and slowing down..

Low visibility:
You want to know the painful part of going into and out of water at speed? Water distortion.
Worse than a constant fog, you'll have your screen blurred for split seconds. Enough to make some turns happen too late to the unprepared driver.

Geysers:
Hot vents under water would be ignored by most people. Avoided even. How lucky are you that the track runs right over multiple of these vents.
While within a geyser, you gain heat on your temperature bar. Be careful with your boosts so you don't suffer a complete meltdown.

Singularity:
Far as my testing goes, this is merely akin to the Lava modifier. I've gained heat while sticking close to the black hole, trying to be sucked off the track and into the void.
Might be some additional gravity pull you have to fight against as well.

Unlisted conditions for tracks:

Off-Road:
While still part of the tracks by design, the lack of magnets don't help for stability.
You will have even more drift and bounce to contend with, as you only have the ship's AG-mags pushing your ship upward.

Water Running:
Cooler than most of the AG magnet tracks, water helps to cool down your engines while flying above it. At the cost of your grip to the track.

Underwater:
Same as being above water, your engines will cool off faster. The problem is, water likes to not let things go faster than itself. Resulting in more drag.

Dust Storm:
If you are around in Old Cario long enough, you'll notice you deal with the occasional dust storm. I thought it was nothing at first. It is not nothing.
The sand grains severely slow down heat dissipation. Much like how dust in a computer interfered with dissipating heat.

Low Walls:
If you've noticed that part of the track included blinking orange walls, its not just for visuals.
While you have your ship tilted upward, you will just fly over them as if they weren't a wall. Which could lead to shortcuts being made.
(I know I have found one up in the clouds. A path that splits and curves outward can be jump-skipped with the low walls.)