Given the manoeuvrability of the hovercar (which in the movie allows Anakin to weave, completely needlessly, between pillars of flame just seconds before this scene), there doesn't seem to be any doubt that Anakin could have flown over the electrical arcs. We guess Anakin is just being reckless.

Of course this is accentuated by the fact that the assassin then flies through a tunnel, and Anakin canonically says that going around is a shortcut. Let's see. You want to get to point B from point A. Do you take the tunnel, or the shortcut?

...

The entire point of a tunnel is that it is the shortcut!

Clearly Anakin is completely deranged by this point in the film.

Transcript

GM: The assassin's car hurtles away through the night sky—
Anakin: I slam it into 8th gear and hit the nitro.
[SFX]: Vrrrooomm!!!
GM: —and flies between a pair of power... things... firing at them to create a huge arc of energy.
[SFX]: zzzzt...
Obi-Wan: What, like a giant Van de Graaff generator?
Anakin: I can fly over it.
[SFX]: zzzzt...
Obi-Wan: I dare you to go straight through it.
Anakin: If you insist, master.
[SFX]: zzzzt...
GM: The arcs—
Obi-Wan: The car acts as a Faraday cage, of course.
GM: —zap you in the open plastic cockpit. Roll for damage.
[SFX]: Zzzaap!!!
GM: The assassin flies into a tunnel through a building.
[SFX]: Zzoooooooommm!
Obi-Wan: Go around! It's a shortcut!
Anakin: A shortcut?
Obi-Wan: If it worked for the Trade Federation on Naboo, it'll work for us.