I was quite enjoying the game, with the first 2 runners I got through the story mode with relative ease...but I got to Ibba/Viv and hit a wall of difficulty. Any advice for these 2 runners?

I know this may just be skill issues, but here me out; There should be a way to turn off the ghosts. If I lose my "feel" for a track, and want to go to practice mode, I'm always met with the ghost of my best time. Practice mode should be about learning the track, and i understand that ghosts do help with that, but I don't think its necessary to have it on all the time. Another thing I feel would benefit everyone, is a way to repeat certain sections of a track without doing the whole track over a...

Is there a way to pull away faster as the start of a race? I feel like the cars wheels spin a lot whereas some AI ones don't, is it just a vehicle difference or is there a technique?

how do I get access to the cars from the DLC in arcade practice mode?

I can't figure it out, it always oversteers WAY too far and I end up slamming into the inside wall. What am I missing?