Congrats, I just completed this, so you'll ACTUALLY get answers!

Are you in Manual or Automatic Transmission?

Originally posted by KukulKahn:

Any tips for me to get pass the race ?

in general, there's three techs you need to master. luckily, they're all similar, mechanically.
1.) on straightaways, you gotta learn to let go of the directions and hit the ram button about every half second. (this works limitedly in non-racecars)
2.) when braking, make sure you have a good straight stretch to slow down, let go of directions and hold down the brake button for about 1.5 seconds. you'll be able to feel it start squirreling. usually there's a straight right before a turn, but sometimes you need it mid-turn and you have to get creative.
3.) sometimes you mess up on a turn and now you're starting to slide off the track, as long as your nose is still aimed in the right direction, let go of the directions and hit the ram button to ram out of the slide-off.

other than that, it's all luck during the initial shakeout and track knowledge.
personally i use landmarks to signal when to do whatever maneuver. i think that removed most of the stress, since i'm not reacting to the actual turns as the creep up on me.

Oh yeh, or that.

I did it the easy way, so follow Hopper's advice.

the devs really give gamers reason not to buy it.

- Use the entire width of the track. Enter turns from the outside, cut towards the inside in the middle and let the car run wide again towards the exit.
- Use the banking in the final turn and steer as little as possible instead of sliding around on the flat part. This lets you carry way more speed onto the long front straight and is worth several seconds per lap.
- Use analog controls, if possible.
- Use manual transmission and stay in 2nd gear for almost the entire lap; shift into 3rd gear only for the penultimate straight, final turn and front straight.
- You can gain a lot of positions by cutting across the grass on the inside of turns 2 and 3 (the first two right handers) on the first lap, while the opponents are bunching up and colliding with each other on the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswHX-azXGA

If you could capture and upload a video of your driving, that would also help to figure out what you're doing wrong.

dude i just dwonloaded after race save file. fixed it for me

I know the difficulty spike is so stupid compared to the rest of the game, but I really like the race and also the night before. I really think it is a great moment.

Thanks for the replies guys.

It sounds like the people having problems with the race don't use the ram button in corners. I completed the race on the first try on the PS4. Same thing today on PC. I even spun the car once and flipped it once and still I easily won. Just spam the ram button in the turns and the car will feel like it is on rails and have crazy grip. I didn't cut the track at all.