Race normal or dont race at all. This Staring from pits nonsens should be punished by iR imo.
Firstly, you're starting from 30 seconds behind everyone else so it already gets "punished" by iRating loss - you can't finish as high as you would have being able to start on the track.
Secondly, are you going to punish people qualifying at the back too? People who intentionally pull over at the start to let other players beat them to the first corner accident? Someone who pulls over on the straight to let a faster driver past? Anyone who doesn't drive absolutely as fast as they possibly can?
At what point do you allow people to start and drive the race however they want?
I don't get why it matters to you at all. If other people are starting from the pits it's a free place for you. What advantage is there to you making them race in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable?
It's even funnier that this has been standard rookie advice for more than a decade. It has worked for thousands of people, both to get used to being on track and just to boost your licence out of Rookie.
I never started from the pits and had no bad experience at all. Just practice the car and track until you are sure you can handle it in a race and then race and dont overthink the iRating + or - you can get. Best way is to forget about the rating at all. And if something bad happens to you just get over it and do the next race. It's not worth getting upset about it. Just move on.
But it's not about handling the car and track, it's about learning to drive around other people. Which can be stressful if you're the sort of person who cares whether you're negatively impacting someone else's experience. Some people are able to just jump in and not give a **** how many other people they crash into, some of us are not like that.
Nor is it about iRating. Starting in the pits doesn't gain you iRating. It's about avoiding the part of the race that is the most complex with the most cars in close proximity and with the highest probability of an accident. Again, some people are happy to just jump in and have a crash. Others would prefer to learn racing in less stressful circumstances and work up to the more tricky situations.
Absolutely people should not focus on iRating at the start, but I never said they should. I
definitely said learning to deal with accidents was part of it.
3. Just keep driving. Eventually you will mess up, get punted, whatever. Learning to deal with that is part of it to, so get yourself back to the pits, take your repairs and keep going.
I just don't think getting into more accidents than necessary is part of it. In order to train at any task I find it's much easier if you're enjoying yourself. Getting crashed out in the first 30 seconds isn't fun, and you're then dealing with whatever your emotional response is for the rest of the race. That's a racing skill, but it's not one that a rookie needs to learn to deal with right now.
Your response suggests you've not had to deal with serious anxiety. Good for you. But the advice of "just do it and get over it" isn't actually helpful. Giving people ways to mitigate that anxiety is, and giving them structured tasks in which they can succeed and grow helps too. Just because someone doesn't learn the way that you learn doesn't mean that you should punish them for it.
