It seems that on a Mac, no drivers are required, however, on some versions a 'Network Preferences' dialog might be opened. Not quite sure how that would relate to USB, but I gather that this dialogue includes both Bluetooth and WiFi devices. I suspect therefore that a new device is sensed and the dialog opens to invite you to configure it. More info here:
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/NANO33BLE
I imagine you are likely to be using WiFi, but perhaps you might want to check whether Bluetooth is OK? Is the radio/service turned on and is it working properly? Its only wild speculation on my part, but I am wondering whether one possibility is that Bluetooth auto-detection is causing the crash?
It looks like the 33 BLE implements the UART on a Nordic nRF52840 chip for which, it would seem, no driver is required as the Mac apparently supports it out of the box. I presume you are getting a serial port since you must be selecting it in the IDE? Are you able to make a terminal connection to the BLE? (Obviously since its not programmed, there will be no output.) Have you also tried a different USB cable?
Some crash information may be recorded in the system log?
Ok, I m throwing out a few seemingly random ideas, but the question is whether this is related to the IDE, or to the driver which would be called when opening a connection to the board, such as when flashing it. As you point out, a program might hang and the process would then have to be terminated, but this should not cause a system crash. However a faulty/corrupt driver just might.