The proper way to play this was to see who could make the most godawful, unplayable track in the track editor.

Games run on 'frames' like animation does. The overheat meter registers one point hotter on, say, every 5th frame. Therefore, you can hold the button for four frames, let go on the fifth, then hold for another four, thus never increasing the overheat meter with no loss of speed. This happens in a few tenths of a second, though, so it's impossible to do without it being tool-assisted.

Theoretically, if you had a super precise controller and superhuman reflexes you could though!