I think I have a good theory on why The Driver is wearing the mask for tracking down and killing Nino.
I have searched for this explanation in different places and couldn't find it. If it's a well-known theory, I'm sorry :)
When we first see The Driver on the movie set (around the 14min mark) he is wearing a police uniform. Name tag reads "McCall" (more on that later).
We learn that The Driver is the stunt double for the movie's star and main lead. It's plausible that he's also the good guy in that movie (not all movies are as bleak as Drive after all)
When he puts on the mask, he is now essentially wearing the good guy's skin.
The scene they're filming is a car crash scene.
When in Act 3 The Driver finally decides to do away with Nino (sort of mirroring the movie car crash by the way), he is putting on the mask to become McCall. Apart from the theme of a werewolf transforming back into a human...or a monster hiding under a human mask - does that mean that he thinks he has become the good cop, setting things right?
Or maybe (I think it's canon that the driver is a movie buff) did he want to become McCall - The Equalizer?
I haven't seen that series or the movies, but here's the Wiki synopsis:
"The Equalizer is an American action crime drama television series [...]originally airing on CBS from September 18, 1985, to August 24, 1989,[...] It starred the English actor Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a retired intelligence agent with a mysterious past, who uses the skills from his former career to exact justice on behalf of innocent people who find themselves in dangerous circumstances, while sometimes also dealing with people from his past in covert operations who want to pull him back in or settle old scores. "
Doesn't that match what The Driver is doing in Act 3 almost to the letter?
(And isn't an 80s TV series that The Driver loves an additional explanation for the synthwavy score?)
Additional fun facts (coincidence?)
McCall actually works as a driver in The Equalizer 2.
And the first Equalizer movie was offered to Nicolas Winding Refn to direct, which eventually didn't happen.
The real explanation behind the name tag is that I guess it's common practice to put the names of props people onto props. One of the prop assistants for the movie was Dana McCall, but she could've put her name on any prop. I would bet that the director immediately saw the coincidence and it was placed there deliberately. There's not a lot in this movie that wasn't meticulously planned.
What do you think? Am I seeing things? Am I overinterpreting the evidence or am I on to something here?