I'm glad someone else feels the same way! My only concern is that the race notification already fills a large portion of the local chat window, and cubimals with long names would make this problem worse.
What if racing the cube made the player speak instead of making a notification?
You: 'Happi Bunnie' the dustbunny went 1.4 planks.
Vermilion: 'Frosty' the snocone vendor went 0.9 planks.
Some1Else: 'Naughty' the rook went 7.1 planks.