Since these are "Race Modded" cars I don't think we should go with any kind of sports tires, but again, just my opinion.
Are we going to all be on the same exact tires?
I'm not super-opposed to sports tires. But I'm of the mind that since they're race m'd cars, putting slicks on them would be half the fun.
As far as I'm concerned the only time one ought to be speeding around on regular city commuter tires (ie: ironically named "comfort" tires), is if armageddon has happened and deformed mutants are chasing you & that's what's on the vehicle you happen to get a hold of during a mad panic.

I'll put up with comfort tires in some vehicles for a particular type of race, but the idea of putting comfort softs on a race modified car would just be too much!
I wish they had seperate options for contact penalties and short cut penalties and you could turn one or both of them on/off.
I've thought that same thing! Game doesn't seem smart enough to determine the difference though between someone actually taking an off-track short cut, as opposed to someone being jettisoned off the track because someone else gave them a good whack. LOL
The only time I've ever received a penalty in a league race was when somebody else crashed into me, and it's happened several times so it's left a bad taste in my mouth.
Oh I remember the first time in an online game when I got the message "shortcut penalty" after someone (possibly deliberately or at least through reckless disregard for any sort of driving line or skilled cornering), thrust me off the track twisting into the wrong direction! I was thinking SOME SHORTCUT! I watched the replay & the guy had a bit of spin out just before that, so he gunned it to the corner to catch up with me, rushed at me, hit my back end, using my car as a mechanism for brake & steering through the turn pretty much, and never went off the track himself, & didn't get a penalty.
I can't help thinking that many people pride themselves on knowing how to game the in-game penalty mechanism.
I'll remember that for a long time. LOL. So please forgive me if I'm twice shy!