Cruising should take a step forward..

[[TC]»Elmo«]

It's generally not the layout itself that causes the crashes though (with a few exceptions), it's usually either the way the track goes or, as seen on the crash maps, people can't drive in a straight line or pull across the track without trying to look
On the other hand, I have been known to add little details that are designed to cause a crash in specific situations - it encourages people to not take the more dangerous routes ::evilgrin::

Creating layouts that work well is quite hard and, especially for junctions, can take a lot of testing ideally with a small number of people.
With experience and observation you begin to learn the kinds of things that do and don't work just by looking at them, based on how people typically behave at various speeds.
Oh, and if it looks messy, it will usually drive messy.