Definitely arguable... like, I'd argue that best arcade racer would be a game where the key selling point isn't crashing into shit.
To be fair, it's more making other people crash into shit haha
Though the increased benefit to the 'combat' element is why I prefer Burnout 2. BO3 is an awesome and super polished and fast game, but I always felt it was even more arcade-y and combative than the series originally was. BO2 is a much more focused racing game where the crashing is either more of a visual reward or a separate mode. BO2 still the best traffic racing game around IMO. Best traffic racing sense of speed too. BO3 has a fastest speed but I think BO2 with some of its traffic areas and such the overall design/feel of the games is just so on-the-edge at times.
It's funny, when BO2 released there was so much NFS HP2 vs BO2 debate, and yet all this time later, I still think they're probably two of the two 3 or at least top 5 arcade racers around -- BO2 for sense of traffic racing speed and HP2 for its third-person 'torque' camera and visual torque feedback.
Almost never played any BO since BO3 or NFS since HP2... just sort of lost interest in the changing car or world design.