It's been several years since I played California Games, but it was mildly entertaining to play.
Some of the other events that I played, but not as much as the BMX racing, were the half-pipe and flying disk. I guess the reason why was because I was never that good at skateboarding in real life and played it to try different tricks that I was a little hesitant to do on a real board. With the flying disk, it was an easy way to play Frisbee with someone when you're by yourself.
Ultimately, this was a fun game to play on the original Nintendo system.