The people's curse is long dead and has been for about a decade, for better or worse.
https://blog.caranddriver.com/this-history-of-the-peoples-curse-or-why-lemons-doesnt-destroy-cars-with-excavators-anymore/
The buy out provision exists still, but it is never used. Only a the organizers can buy out a car, and honestly, they all have too many garbage hoopties as is. Only two cars car every got bought out; one because it had no labor in it, and was totally worth more than five hundred dollars (a nice Mercedes couple with all of the power) and another because THEY WOULD NOT STOP GETTING BLACK FLAGS.
At the last Houston race, there was a 5.3L LS Swapped E36, no curse, no buyout, just a lot of penalty laps and laughing when it blew up after three laps.
In short, build a glorious piece of garbage and be confident that the only bad thing that will happen to is a bunch of red-misty-eyed Miata and Honda drivers will run into it...because ya know...THEY HAD THE LINE.