How to start a race?

[Hexafice]

I started the game and after the tutorial it made me drive to locations which then show me to buy a dlc (hot-wheels, ...) - i'm about 90 minutes in without having driven a single race.

I don't care about the story, i just want to drive some races vs ai or players. Did i just miss something in the menu?

[Patrick Not-Star]

You have to play career. Races will only open as you progress through the story

[Patrick Not-Star]

If you want to play online racing, try Horizon Open. But I'm not sure if it's available at the beginning of the game. And you should have many different cars and good tunes (for example one tune tune/car for rally, one for sprint, one for curcuit, etc) to play against real players.
But MOST IMPORTANT, you must learn the routes/tracks. And it is better to do it in single mode as not to disturb real players, otherwise you can get banned

[dbond1]

Unlock all the outposts then have at it.

[el tejón roja]

Yeah you have to get 'hall of fame' status before the game opens up properly.
Think of it as like an extended tutorial where you play through the story mode and get a bunch of cars to get you started in the process.

[kireta]

Game opens after you complete tutorial. It ends when game joins you to live server for the first time.

Progression from that point is measured in accolades, an ingame achievement system. Every time you hit new points milestone, you're told to establish new outpost, which is done my completing "story" mission. Each outpost unlocks new type of activities: Apex unlocks track racing, Wild unlocks mixed surface racing, Baja unlocks offroad, Rush unlocks stunts: speedtraps, drift zones etc.