It's quite easy really. It's just a matter of a little common sense and a bit of experience. The texture files come as DDS. files which can be opened directly by Photoshop with a plugin, or with less quality without a plugin. You can then simply edit the pictures, save and keep trying. The game's data is really open to people to mess around with since it's a user-content game. Tuning the performance and the actual car is tricky. Each car has a configuration setting (.ini), and all the car's performance and statistic data EXCEPT the torque curves are in there. For my car, I tuned the torque curves a little, screwed around with the suspension, and did a hell of a lot of visual work on it. I've also edited many, many other cars.
Adding objects and parts to the car needs a modeler though...something I've yet to try.
Btw, if you want to try my car out in the game, hit me up with a PM and I'll send it in a .RAR file.

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I also recommend reading Racer's 'documentation' part of the site, it's definitely worth a read even if you don't play the game, it gives you a good understanding of many aspects.