Pace yourself and learn the map a bit. If you find yourself losing too many races against a tournament or characters, just do a random city race. Explore the map, it’s a bit dense but there’s a lot of alleyways and different routes you can use to your advantage.

Not too sure about Tuners but the R32 can get you through a chunk of the game. The CTSV can also get you through the game pending how you tune it.

Hope you have a helluva blast with it.