Okay so I can tell you right now that I would 100% play the game more if it had characters/character customization. I know this is a car game an it isn't what you are aiming for but it would open up a whole new world of roleplay.
Understandable, but like you said it doesn't fully match the flow of beam. It would be exciting to have a more realistic human character, but I imagine it would also change the rating of the game potentially? Anyhow, I have seen a mod for character models that sustain injury to simulate crash dummies or the like. It's not exactly what you're looking for but could be fun for you. I think it would just stray too much in the opposite direction for the mods to focus on this. Maybe in the far future of development.
RoR had a character and it felt really out of place. That's just my opinion. There may be something in the future to take the place of the snowmen etc. But adding characters would make the game uncanny or more like an Indygame
