@THEJAJOyou are among many other 'enthusiasts', some of whom (like me) have played this game for 18 months or more and still cannot understand the irrational behavior of this game, that make it very frustrating for anyone who isn't a gaming geek, or hacker and cheat for that matter.
One thing I have learned about NFSNL is the game logic is definitely not based upon real world 'drive physics'... in fact must of it's behavior is counterintuitive or completely contrary to the experience of racing a real car... but hey, it is a game after all and the rules of the gaming universe do not need to comply with the laws of physics or the limitations imposed on us in the real world.
And herein lies a secret to getting further ahead in a game... "Question your assumptions!"... i.e. don't assume the game behaves the same way as the real world.
For example... don't assume that following a racing line with maximum traction, will result in a better time than drifting and bouncing your car off barriers will!
I discovered completely by chance, that to eek out some extra speed in a BRR nitro race, you basically need to drift, ever so slightly, through as much of the track as possible, PARTICULARLY when hitting the nitro strip itself (or at least, so it seems)... I shaved 2 seconds off my time by doing this. I've also discovered that when you drift into a corner that's too tight for a 'gentle' drift, it's better to hold the gentle drift to recharge nitro, then slam into a boundary wall or barrier to right your traction again and hit the nitro. For some bizarre reason, bouncing off barriers gently seems to act like a 'spring', boosting speed, rather than reducing it, and this is probably because it forces your car out of the drift... so when you hit the nitro, you get the full benefit of the extra traction. Of course, in the real world, if you drift a corner and hit a barrier at these speeds, you'll probably be visiting your ancestors sooner than you hoped. In reality, a car drifting, even slightly, will NEVER outpace a car of the same class traveling in a straight line with full traction... but this is not true in the NFSNL universe.
As for the occasional McLaren and Pagani 'freaks' that outsmoke a CCX in a straight line and out accelerate you and make it seem like you're looking for parking, well we know many of these proved to be cheaters and as for the rest who claim not to be cheaters, well they're clearly exploiting some other counter-intuitive anomaly in the game that we haven't discovered yet.
If you're expecting NFSNL to be a 'fair play' game, I recommend you give up on that idea and save yourself the stress. I've maxed out every standard car in the game and run with a fully tuned CCX (with 8 spanners) and still I'm smoked by the odd McLaren and Pagani while clocking up a 'best time'. I don't think there are many players with 8 spanners and I'm constantly smoked by other CCX's even on a perfect start... so there are many 'tricks' I'm still to learn too. If you stumble on any, let me know.
