The wonder bolts is not a military organization or purely just a racing group. They’re more like a public service like fire fighters. It’s can be an extremely dangerous profession to be in. But it is an important job.
There are many sub sections of the wonder bolts. Fire duty, Weather monitoring, storm chasers and storm study, life guards at watery locations and the edges of cloud cities, postal services, and the most dangerous being weather management and control.
There is still a group of racers for the Wonder bolts. To help with Public reputation, and to help get money for all the other services the wonder bolts provide. They cycle racers around, to make sure everyone is doing public service instead of just racing on the track.
Spitfire is a Pegasus with a fire alignment who you most often see in the fire fighting duties. She can stay in a burning area for an extended period of time with no damage to her bedside the worry of smoke inhalation. But that’s what her gear is for isn’t it? Many wonder if she’s on racing duty so much is because she puts herself in harms way so often.
Soarin is a Pegasus with water and wind alignments. He is often a life guard. Why is he so often a racer? Many ponies find him pretty attractive and they get more money if he’s on the racing team. He actually doesn’t really like the attention all that much. Spitfire is often getting in the way of cameras and interviewers for his sake. They’re childhood friends!