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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQRmYMlmdqM
Pretty much 75% of any Motorsport is getting the breaking right and getting the racing line correct. All else will some together. Then just hot-lap with your ghost on and try and beat it lap after lap.... then hey presto, you'll be knocking seconds off before you know it! :)
Seriously though, step 1, are you faster than the AI on 100%? If not, start there.
You can watch the AI drive, sit inside their cars, use the pedals app, follow them around the track etc etc.
Watch them drive. Do quick races with the AI slider set to a level where you can follow them around at the back, hitting the apexes and so on comfortably.
Just relax and drive around like that. When it starts to feel really easy up the difficulty.
Increase the slider until you're just above your comfort zone - again, don't worry about overtaking or winning, just try to get the same lap time as they do without dropping off the back. You might want to overtake some of the back markers though.
The trick is to copy their line, their braking point and to drive smoothly but quickly around the track.
When you get to the stage where you can comfortably keep up with the AI on 100% (on a bunch of different track and car combinations) then start to ask people. Post videos of your laps and ask them to look and give tips.
I imagine by this stage though you should be able to do the same thing in your leagues. i.e you will be able to keep up and maybe overtake some and get to a position where you're following someone mid pack.
The higher up the pack you get in your league races the more setup will come into play. If you're several seconds off the pace, forget about setup. If you're getting close, then you've a whole different learning curve. Basically, if you can drive smooth, consistent fast laps you can start playing with setup to drop lap times. If you can't then you need to keep working on driving smooth, consistent fast laps until you can.
But, you know, if you can't beat the AI then the answer is probably "everything" and although I think you'll find people will give you opinions if you posted a video, it will cover everything - the line you take, using the whole width of the track, the braking points, not hitting apexes, getting on the power late etc etc.
Braking is perhaps the most difficult thing, especially without ABS (if you think about it, any idiot can drive down the straights foot to the floor, changing up gear) you come to a corner you need to slow, navigate the corner and get back on the power early. Getting back on the power is more important than braking late into the corner.
If you stick with the AI into the corner but they seem to shoot off, chances are they got on the power earlier, if you feel that if you'd planted your foot earlier the car would just spin, then it's all about weight transfer and a balanced car, rather than flying into the corner holding on for dear life.
That said, the AI are obviously are not the best or fastest drivers in all circumstances, so until the AI improve you might need to pick and choose cars and tracks where they work reasonably well.
There are 2 basic ideas behind being slow though. You either don't drive hard enough or you drive too hard. In most cases people fall into the latter category. If you think "I'm absolutely going as fast I can through the corners" but you're at the back, then you're probably over driving. i.e you need to slow down to go quicker.
If you get to the stage where you're driving smoothly around and getting reasonably close to the top times, then perhaps you need to brake later, see just how far you can push without going too far and losing the smooth driving you've practised.
http://revs-simracing.co.uk/index.php/forum/revs-driving-school
There was a very good - if a little brief - piece on learning a track once on modern top-gear (UK), featuring Sir J. Steward and my favourite presenter: "Captain Slow".
Also Empty Box' youtube-channel has a section "Sim racing 101" which has some rather useful, informative advice.
Thirdly: change up your drive, once in a while. It is totally worth it to pause when you feel you are hitting a wall on the one course you have been concentrating on and just leave that one for a while, let the lessons learned "sink in" for a while before you re-visit that combo, again.
There is such a thing as over-practicing. To stay sharp in-between it is a good idea, I have found, to just drive different stuff, even take a few laps around tracks in "tourist-mode", not going for speed but trying to use the brakes as little as possible, conserving momentum. Tells me something about the different lines I can take through corners, helpful knowledge when dealing with traffic during a race.
Bigbazz:
Thanks for posting that. I watched the whole 90 minutes and thoroughly enjoyed it. I went to a high performance driving school many years ago and found a lot more info on the YouTube clip. I have subscribed to the Skip Barber Racing School YouTube channel.
He's already married with 3 kids and working on project cars.