I'm w/ you Thaurin on the Dawn re-envisioning, that movie kicked ass. There was some good characters, and i loved the vehicle. Ive come to a begrudging acceptance of the track star zombies, i cannot just ignore possibly good films otherwise because of it. It does ramp up the tension more immediately, but it's just being lazy to use them. As we saw in end of The Walking Dead premiere, the shamblers can provide some pretty intense moments as well. All depends on the skill of the director.
Also, the track star zombies tend to be more generic. I like the themed zombies, like clowns, cops, boy scouts,etc. Who can forget the Hare Krishna zombie from the original Dawn of the Dead!
If you havent seen Tom Savini's 90's remake of Night of the Living Dead, i encourage you to check that one out.