Wow, I am just amazed at how hard it is just to FINISH a race. Sometimes I feel like I am just behind the pack but time runs out really quickly. It is really bad when you are doing a cross country rush. Target is 4 kilometers away and I am in my jeep wranger going 100+ miles off road heading straight to it and still can’t finish most of the time. I admit I hit a lot of corners and get tons of slow down penalty from it. Big unbreakable trees is another big issue cross country, how do people back it to the target at any reasonable time when there is a forest in the way?
Drive manual (at least), use a good suitable tune, use at least reasonably powerful car, don’t hesitate to use rewind.
On off-road races AI is more skewed than on road. Sometimes it can be very frustrating (mostly on unbeatable or pro difficulty), when you have that one or two rogue AI car(s) just charging into the sunset, while you are trying to pass their friends and they will try to make you waste as much time as they can. In that case, swallow your pride and switch steering to normal (assuming it’s on sim). Sometimes it feels like lowering difficulty a few steps.
I personally prefer less bouncy cars/tunes with better handling (usually not the fastest ones) for off-road driving, but that’s probably tied to my driving style.
Also, git gud. 
I drive manual with clutch and now I can’t go back to automatic since I don’t feel like I am in control with that. I mostly race online, most of the time I am dead last since I feel like I don’t have control over my corners. Let’s look at dirt racing for example; I have two different kinds of jeep and they have speed but before a corner I have to slow down a lot. Almost literally any kind of off road car can beat my jeeps around corners. I am not sure it is the grip since the runes I got for them didn’t have a description of the goal of the tune. My S1 class Jeep is basically a super car but also acts like one around corners which defeats the purpose of the jeep in the first place.
I really need to find a balance on slowing down enough on a corner to turn it but don’t lose so much that cars can easily over take me. I already have another thread on cornering and practicing what I am learning there but I am not sure if it is the car or my cornering technique (probably both). I also got to learn about cars so I can eventually make my own tunes; it is being apparent you need knowledge of cars to do well.
Get proper tunes for the cars. There is a tuning section on this website where some people explain what tunes they have shared. Kbowtuning particularly has a lot of different tunes and you should check whether he has shared any tunes for the cars you want to use. Fairly sure he has a Jeep Trailcat one if that is the Jeep you are using (that is also a top S1 cross country car with the right tune - not sure how good the other jeeps are but I rarely see them used online so probably not as strong).
The most popular cross country car for A class online is the Ford Raptor 17, which I think can be purchased easily from the auto show (someone will correct me if that’s wrong!). I think I have a Don Joewon Song tune on mine, which would certainly be competitive against most online drivers. You might want to try improving your driving with that and then switch to a more individual choice once you are getting good results with it.
You don’t have to drive manually… I only drive manually for drifting, and I complete all the races easily, even on Unbeatable for the Goliath. Also… I don’t think that rewind is good for learning either. I turned it off a couple of days after I got Forza.
They’re talking about online races, so Unbeatable is irrelevant. I also strongly disagree on rewind; when used correctly, it will make you faster. I use rewind when i misjudge a corner to try it again a different way, sometimes 4, 5, even 6 times so I understand that corner better. In online, not using rewind is really dumb, as it can be much faster than waiting on a reset when someone pushes you outside a checkpoint.
You really need to stop looking down on people that use rewind. We all know you don’t use it, and nobody cares.
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The OP sounds like they may be confusing cross country and freeroam rush.
If you are referring to freeroam rush, then the short answer is that heading straight for the target is not always the best way to go. If you are heading straight towards a forest, then it’s highly unlikely that you will be able to go through it quickly - you will hit a tree and stop. This loses you substantial time.
I would quickly study the map when it pops up just before the race starts. Often you will be able to see a main road which takes you in the general direction of the target. Get to that ASAP and follow it until you get near the target and then head off road across fields rather than into a forest if possible. Also follow the main group of cars or anyone with a high ranking who may well know where they are going. You might not beat them but you can beat others who go off-road and also learn for next time.
freeroam rush is, most of time, experience / there are not so many combinations of races in proposed championships, it is nothing random there. In the end you will locate how to go through the river without having to slow down from the damned bridge, learn to take the tunnel instead of going around the mountain, learn the good track to avoid the rocks, learn to slow down when about to dive into forest instead of counting on your luck , and so on and so on. Just like for races, some knows before the rush start the exact track they are going to take and how to take it.
Rewind can be kind of leading you to skip the issues because you rewind and pass the difficulty while if you get stopped and loose time, you will memorize danger is there.
Just brake bro. Turn on assisted braking if you really need it.
Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but when was freeroam rush made available in single player? Or is the OP referring to user generated races?
He’s talking about online racing since he mentions slow downs and not be able to finish the race, aka: 30 seconds to finish after the 1st crossed the finish line
Linking this to your other thread, where you say you’re very new to the game, you have to bear in mind some people have now been playing the game for thousands of hours. The highest on my friends list is someone with almost 4000 hours of playing time. Some people know exactly how to get from A to B for every freeroam rush, and they also have the best car and tune ready for every type of adventure. S1 dirt racing in the snow? They just go straight to the best car that they already have ready with the best tune for that. It’s a game that hugely rewards spending a lot of time learning all the tracks, all the freeroam rush routes, and getting the best cars and tunes ready for every type of adventure.
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Oh, if the initial question was about online MP, then you can forget about using rewind. It’s all about meta cars, suitable tunes (sometimes several copies of the same car for different classes so you can quickly select them) and knowing the tracks. Everything breeminator said.
Yeah, my question was more directly related to multiplayer (should of made that clear my fault). I have been trying to look for a list of meta cars and came across Don Songs list. I got my hands on an Eagle Speedter for S1 racing. If there is a complete meta list of cars for each class race/offroad that would be cool to have. A lot of other games have tier lists. I would imagine a tier list for this game would be a little big depending on the conditions. With an unlimited amount of cars you could have, making a car for specific road/conditions is not out of the question.
There won’t be one set agreed list of cars but they’ll definitely be plenty of opinions. Some brief options to consider in each main class might be:
A road: the Hotwheels Boneshaker is the class leader (and for dirt as well) but not available for purchase or through wheelspins. Only current way to acquire would be through the auction house. Alfa TZ2, Alfa 33C or Shelby Daytona are good options if you don’t have a Boneshaker but are all expensive (£2.5 million or more). Honda S2000 or Mazda RX7 might be cheaper alternatives which can hold their own. The Eagle Speedster is also good in this category if a bit underpowered on most circuits.
S1 Road: Lamborghini Huracan and Gallardo are both quick, McClaren 570S is strong. Dodge Viper 08 and Zonda C are also popular choices. No real obvious class leader. I use the Alfa 33c in this class for Winter races and on dirt but there are loads of choices.
S2 Road: I switch cars quite a lot here. The Ferrari FXX is very strong in bone dry conditions. I also like the Senna or the Apollo (only available through auction house) for street as they both have great handling. Some of the FE cars you can obtain through wheelspins - for example, the AM Vulcan FE - are also popular and can be easily picked up in the AH…
X country: as mentioned, the Ford Raptor 2017 is a good choice for A class. The Merc X class is also strong but I think might need to be won? If you don’t want to use a truck, try the Porsche Macan, Lamborghini Urus or the giant Mini. S1 class options would be the Jeep Trailcat or the Rebel TRX (but you’d need the Fortune Island expansion for the latter).
I do very well in online ranked. Team and FFA i’m in the 3200s. I use rewind because like the other person said, its quicker than waiting for the game to reset you. I used to use Macan exclusively for A and S1 cross country but I stopped because its too low to the ground. It does NOT do well in water. Raptor, Ram, ZR2, Merc X-Class do very well for me. For the freeroam (which is still my favorite), you need alot of top end, you also wanna get away from the other drivers including teammates. No ghosting in that mode and people will still try to wreck you.
Since it cant be done in the sanctioned races as much, its way more prevalent in the freeroam. I always preach winning freeroam because the flagged races are a toss up. If you miss a checkpoint or get pushed outside one, will likely end your chance of winning the race. Freeroam is more determined by your knowledge of the map, knowing where you can cut through the forest, across water or completely go offroad away from asphalt to gain an advantage