is it possible to manually change anything to make 1. pershon shooter while in car?

Nope - there is not

damn I so hate 3. person view

thought that some ini file or something would do it but ....

nah, i think the devs might thought of that, but the 3p view of car driving is more immersive due to the game's nice highlights, the wrecked roads, building and landscape, and i think bandit car fights are harder if there is a 1p view mode

Indeed. If you remember the start you get to ride "in" the car to the first settlement. I thought that was far superior to the third person view.

And then actually driving in 1st person feels like [censored].

Something is wrong in a game when you drive in first person... disgusting

Good luck, best I've seen is playing around with the "birdseyeview" console command, I don't remember it offhand since I haven't played rage in a couple months but I do know that you can zoom in/out quite a bit, you MIGHT be able to zoom in with it to get a pseudo-1st person mode, though I'd guess you would probably not see your vehicle model.

Search for "Rage vehicle birds eye view" should be some stuff on the steam powered forums