1) you can't use auto gears, it's to force a bit of skill, becuase statistically, most poor/wrecker drivers use auto gears, also autogears are so much slower, that you should really be using manual gears.
2) you may have a faulty setup, try using a different one, with no passengers in the car (last tab on setup menu, make sure all are set to "none")
3) Eventually managing to get into a server, you should have been trying to join "CTRA Race 1" or "CTRA Bump'N'Jump" or "CTRA Single Seater 1" until you get sufficient licencing to join the Race 2 and Race 3 or SS2 and SS3 derived servers. Going to Raceauthority.com and reading over the whole rules bit, might be a good idea.