Avatars and signatures are disabled for non-licensed racers, not as a bonus to licensed racers, but to prevent certain individuals from registering free demo accounts and uploading inappropriate avatars.
If you think that, they you will find out soon enough how delusional that statement is.
I never thought of this. This should be added to the top 100 reasons why you should use LFS over other racing sims. Indeed, I've yet to find another forum, sim or other, that had such a collection of smileys!
:heartbeat :lfs::heartbeat
The avatars as mentioned have been disabled, getting a license - also mentioned - will solve this, and as you are getting one then be warned of the dark corners of the forum where one Jakg and Tristan lurk.