burnout paradise theory:
i'm pretty sure you never see pedestrians walking around anywhere in the game. and with how casually you can just get away with speeding and crashing into everything, i'd bet paradise city has no real people in it. it's just a playground full of driverless cars set up for the rich to have fun.
the amount of money you rack up in crash mode is probably the amount of money you have to pay for the extra special effects on top of repairs