This is one of the advantages of Vegas Pro. More tools for precisely this sort of thing. Specifically the secondary color correction tool. It lets you pick a specific color in the scene to alter. The color corrector tool that affects the whole frame is the primary color corrector tool.

Here's one thing that may help with your color issues. Take the same clip on track one and put it on track two. Now, select only the second track and adjust the color on the bottom clip. Do a severe adjustment to it. If the scene needs more light, start by adding more light than you would on the single clip. Then unselect only the second track, so you see the top track again. Then take the top clip and lower the transparency so that the two tracks blend together. Now tweak the color adjustment/transparency until it looks good. Experiment with it.