The whole "ricer" thing actually came from people seeing surprisingly fast cars from Japan in the late 80s and early 90s (modified or not) and calling them "rice rockets". Ricer has become the generic term that mostly describes wannabe racers who are just trying to get attention usually.
I don't like these type of people (and the bullshit they do to their cars), but I can appreciate people improving a car to perform better than a more expensive car, by putting time and effort into it. That's my philosophy, anyway...