My guess would be performance. Mafia was already kind of pushing the hardware of it's time to the limits, so they've probably tried to make it more accessible for people with weaker rigs.
Yup, the race is easy if you're actually paying attention and learn the handling.
Digital re-releases of this game isn't the most graceful one. I'd suggest buying old games from GOG, since those releases are usually better.
Is there a reason as to why eye animations and car scratches were remove from version 1.2 ?
Also on the side note I did beat the race mission on version 1.0 during my test run, I do remember my older brother beat it on version 1.0 back in the day, when I played it on gog version, there's already been choice of diffcult options, but to be fair I didn't find any diffrents between 1.0 and 1.2 that much, the race isn't arduous per say, it's just matter of not going too fast at curves.
P.S
This have Trojan virus:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/bb69d935b49dfe7ab71e22608102d01b985a4ca41c9e8559e765ed2d0149d5a2
Here is "safe" version:
https://www.nfsaddons.com/downloads/nfspu/tools/3824/nfs-porsche-unleashed-combined-patch-v10.html