Time trial attempts with penalties should not count

good suggestion, although I think a better solution would be to increase the penalties or do a forced reset for large deviations from the track

This seems like a good approach.

I too was thinking it might work something like the 'no more than 50% damage' objectives from the Moments mode where during the run, if you fail the objective you get an on-screen message informing you. In this case, the 'objective' would be not to incur any track limit or cut corner penalties.

@speedlemur, I also agree that penalties should be increased and should ALSO scale with how far from the track you were when the penalty was applied (these times still shouldn't count in time trials in my opinion). On the topic of resets, I like to be able to drive back to the course when I make a mistake. I found the resets to be a little to aggressive in DR2.0 and I like that WRC gives you the opportunity to back out of whatever mess you've put yourself in and get back on with it.

I would suggest that official rules are followed. At least that the car is in bounds at all times. One wheel inside the track? We know we can go off track by missing a corner, but would be nice if those times wouldn't count.eitherway because we also know we shouldn't be doing our best run.

Someone who gets one 5-second penalty for cutting a little too much should not be disqualified. That is pouring out the baby with the bathwater (i.e. overkill).

Instead, the root cause (the possibility for giant cuts) should be removed.

Level designers need to put in either blocking geometry, or invisible  triggers that reset the car when it tries to make an unusually large cut. This requires identifying the places where huge cuts are possible and putting a blocker OR a reset trigger in there (same thing that happens when you hit spectators).

Fixed.

I am only suggesting this apply to the time trial mode. In all the other racing games I have played, if track limits are exceeded, that run does not get entered into the global leaderboard.

I agree that the penalty system needs to be tweaked for championships and club events. The solution in this post, only attempts to address time trial mode.

I think a way of doing it like forza horizon would be cool. the "clean times" will be at the top of the ranking and those with one or more penalties will be after

and the number of penalties will be taken into account

This seems reasonable for TT alone.  As there is almost always a chance to repeat a run and correct your "mistake"

Interesting, suggestion! Might also be workable if penalized runs could be filtered out (but preferably not included by default).