Hello

just finished most of the training sessions (need much more practice:tilt
then had a go on two different tracks as a race. When the race finished the game didn't end i could just carry on driving all the np cars were stopped on the finish line. do i need to set something else in game pref or do I have to finish the race game by hitting the escape key

Once the race is finished, it stays finished untill you start another race, or end that race and choose some car/track to race on.

yes i understand that when the race ends

but should the game not drop out to the menu as it dose in the training sessions when is over

Nope

ok thanks

In a single player game this could make sense, but as it stands LFS is 99% online, thus you can't really go back to a menu once you're finished - the others have to finish, too . And it's much more fluent that way, given the current nature of pickup races (which are usually quite short resulting in a high amount of races overall - it would be annoying to go back to a menu every time).