Okay, I get it now. I read an article somewhere that talked about what it means to play this game. Its Dark Souls with cars. Unforgiving and any mistake made is my own. Keeping that in mind I tried it again for the sixth(?) time and I actually finished a stage. Started the career and I came in second in the first race. It takes practice. I understand that now. But its still inexcusable how there's a 14 second penalty when you reset. That's just a middle finger to the player, adding insult to injury.