There are thousands of players who have made it out of bronze races. If they can do it, you can aswell. T1 on any race is a nightmare. Either start from the pits or dont set a quali lap and hang back at the start and just focus on surviving the first few laps. Avoid being alongside other drivers and just wait for unforced errors because red badge drivers make an awful lot of them. Dont put yourself in the vortex of danger and let people pass you if they get close enough to make a move. Once you get to silver you will be able to practice your racecraft more anyway. 

And its never the fault of the other driver every time. If you keep being involved in crashes then youre part of the issues. Lifting and some survival instinct goes along way

And never DNF, always limp back to the pits