In LFS you can always choose another server, but here you're stuck with what's there. I guess one could cruise around the track for the whole race, to improve the rating, but that defies the whole meaning of racing.
Regarding the damaging - I was pretty sure there would be some sort of repair. The first time I was in an accident, I nursed the car around the track and parked in a free pit box, like you would in LFS. Stood there for a while, but nothing happened. So I did a reset, but you only have 1 of those, right? Then someone said you have to stop in the pitbox where the guy holding a stick is. So the next time I was in an accident, I nursed the car around again, pitted in the box in front of the guy with a stick. But again, nothing happened. And no more resets, so race over.
I really like how the cars handles, compared to LFS. They feel much more like what a rwd car handles in real life, than the rwd cars in LFS. But there's still things LFS is tons better at, like pickup racing and website. LFS World is a masterpiece compared to the confusing stuff at iRacing. I haven't even figured out how to check if someone on your friends list is online and where. Some sort of "XXX has signed up for race x at x time" would be nice.
One more thing, I only see smoke from my own car when locking up the brakes, never seen any smoke from someone else. It's supposed to be like that? Or maybe everyone else just do perfect braking?