A friend and I have tackled many Death Valley roads in a minivan but we avoid the roads listed in the red for sure, I actually was commenting last time I was there of how you have lots of options for survival if lost or stranded out there since there is allot of springs yet I guess you can't expect the average tourist with probably no knowledge of survival or even a clue it seems to get anywhere.
Anvil Springs?, that is not the worst place to get stuck, if you can get out of the sun until night fall, you can make your way to Warm Springs Camp which has shelter, not sure about the water quality from the spring, leave the wife and kids there and when night falls again it's probably about 15 miles to 178 where you can get picked up.
It's good to put an ending on a mystery though...
