Like the best driver of all time says: "As soon as the tail (Audi S1) starts to slide, it's safe to nail the throttle until you start catching flies with the side windows."
Don´t really understand what the front/weight balance have to do with the drifting. IMHO a heavy back is more easy to force into drift. Look to a Renault Alpine A110 for example.
I tried and tried on my Test server... without drifting around the corners my times are SLOWER around the track. So with drifting I can pass the finish line quicker. So... it ... must ... be... RACING!!! CALL ME TAZIO!
Going from A to B or round a circuit is always racing. Would you say Rallye is not racing because of the lateral gs? BS! So drifting is racing, too. No one says that racing ONLY means getting from A to B in the fastest time. If you think so, dolphin style isn´t swimming because you can go faster with freestyle?
I tried it out with a few friends. Drifting is huge fun with LFS. We build some tracks at AU_1 and drift like hell. Hope we´ll have a 24/7 drift server soon in FM. Actually I´m runnin´a test server.
5 sitting in front of a screen while racing is unrealistic
6 using a usb wheel is unrealistic
7 and
8 so
9 on
...
It´s also a question of the track you choose. Small, fast tracks (like the OVAAAAAL) are not the right track to wait after crash. You´ll better push shift+s if you are standing in the apex for example. Every 30 sec. cars will pass. NO TIME to get your direction fixed. Entering pits after hiting the wall with 350 km/h+ is even .... UNREALISTIC.
But I agree with point 4. Ingame chat suckz, so better use ventrilo voicechat.