What?!? 3:50? Whats your lap times and top speed on straights and turns? Mine takes about 7 minutes with my vettel(40k miles). ive tried with a 1k> miles colored x1 but it never took the turns well enough and it never got into first place.
Like the Wind is 5 laps, not 10. Race time is about 3:45. The payout is 70K vs 86K for the Dreamcar Championship, but the race is half as many laps, so you'll run twice as many races in the same time-frame, which means a higher payout.
I hit 260 MPH in the straights and the turns drop the car down to 180 by the end of the turn.
You're probably holding too much into the wall on the left stick. That will slow you down a lot. You should hold just enough right input that it keeps you on the wall, but no more. It's barely any input whatsoever.
At the race start, your car should
gently ease over to the wall. It shouldn't dive in. Also, after turn 1 and turn 2 there are slight bumps in the wall, and your car should actually come off the wall just slightly after hitting those bumps before settling back to the wall. If you set it up so the car reacts this way, you'll get 260 MPH in the straights.
The first lap is ugly and you'll be playing bumper cars for almost the entire lap. You'll take first place by about 3 seconds, because the competition is pretty quick in this race.