> I would almost definitely struggle to get excited about it without the human element
You'd have teams in "pits" monitoring their vehicles live. Those reactions will be raw and humanistic.
When the vehicle comes in for a "pit stop," the team--in addition to doing mechanical maintenance--could be allowed to tweak the code, e.g. based on strategic observations of other cars' behaviours. To keep it interesting, one could mandate--to make up for the electronics in the car--all "pit stop" labor be completely manual. (Any code changes could be taken onto the track on an unpowered drive.)
I think your post just helped me understand why I never was interested in sports. I cannot get excited watching other humans doing heroic stuff.
This would not change for me if it were AI's with identifiable characteristics doing the activities (driving). With suitable marketing maybe real sportsfans could get behind (hypotheically) Team Waymo's AlphaRomeo Zero. Especially with an e-sports tie-in. Imagine racing, and thereby helping to train your (AI) hero on a simulator.
I think most wouldn't be that interested if there wasn't an actual driver (in the car, too, not some remote thing), even if it's ultimately faster.