The low FPS + crashing issues can be fixed by using a ddraw wrapper. There are several which are compatible with N.I.C.E. 2.

I would personally recommend DDrawCompat[github.com], while dgVoodoo[dege.freeweb.hu] is another popular one.

If using ddrawcompat, just copy the ddraw.dll file for the wrapper over to the root of your game directory. dgVoodoo and some other wrappers may also come with config files you need to put in the same directory.

You can quickly verify the crashing issue is fixed by loading into a single player race and exiting to the main menu.