You can get plenty of ride height by running larger tires. The larger tires, especially on the rear, also give better traction. The CG will of course be higher, but on a low traction surface that doesn't matter so much.

Racing 1/12 scale on asphalt is actually quite fun. I'm looking forward to doing it again after many years-- we have a small group that wants to run next weekend on our large, low-traction parking lot track.