It's a Japanese thing when running the Togue (mountain pass).
Passing someone on these runs is the sports ball equivalent of a successful Hail Mary to win a game.
They usually have two similarly matched cars (power or weight wise.) with equal skilled drivers to determine the better set-up/machine.
Check out "Best Motoring" "Hot Version" they were Japanese magazines / video magazines where they did a ton of these battles. Incredible stuff.