Well there's really no other way than too simply keep trying. The more you play and compete in an event (such as races) the more you are familiar with them the easier they will be. What I used to do is set a goal of how far I wanted to get before the winner won the event and everytime I was in that race I would try to beat my previous record and so on until I was among the top 3 players.
Just keep trying and never give up. You can only get better and faster.