Hi there
If you order the server listing by name (click on "Name" at the top of the server list, and they'll be sorted alphabetically) under C, you should find all eight public CTRA servers - Races 1, 2 and 3, Single Seaters 1, 2 and 3, UF-BabyR, and Bump & Jump.
Seeing as you are driving in the Race 1 server, you're in an entry-level race. This means that some people drive overly aggressively, making unnecessary contact and what have you, and this can easily have a negative impact on your own racing experience - no matter how cleanly you try to drive. The one thing to bear in mind is that, to avoid incidents, you must always act predictably. With skilled and experienced drivers, the only thing that causes contact is being unable to predict what the driver in front is going to do: for example, if you feel you need to slow down, apply the brakes very gently at first so that your brake lights come on, without you appearing to stop dead in front of whoever's following you. Basic things like this can be a great help in avoiding incidents; you just have to hope they're not wasted on careless other drivers.
Your method of letting a driver who has overlap pass you cleanly and smoothly is spot-on, and whilst it's quite subjective and circumstantial whether or not a driver has to ease off to let someone else take the inside line (the situation is everything here, but usually it's common sense), you shouldn't be having drivers cut across you and making contact. Despite that overlap is officially measured at "the normal turn-in point for the corner", I find it almost never works like that, and a basic safety rule to follow is that if you can't turn in without hitting the car on the inside, let them through - but if you're already turning in when the contact occurs, then they should have let you through. Obviously you'll want to avoid that contact in the first place, but that's how I figure out whose door the blame lands at.
I strongly recommend you take a look around raceauthority.com - click
here - as the rules are explained in detail there. Also, when you've created a password ingame by typing "$ctra" in a CTRA server and filling out the form that appears, you can log in to "MyCTRA" on RA.com. This gives you access to all of the statistics the CTRA system collects about your driving, your licence grades, and so on. It also gives you access to the reporting feature, which is available in servers by typing "$rep". If someone's driving has affected your own race, through an aggressive driving style, negligence, or even malice, you can fill out a report against them. This will be reviewed by CTRA admins, and the appropriate action will then be taken.
Whilst we all hope that filling out reports stays unnecessary, it should be done when a driver is clearly not following the rules, to help keep the servers clean and stop future issues.
I hope I've been helpful here - all that remains for me to say is, welcome (back) to LFS, welcome to the CTRA, and enjoy your stay. Hope to see you on track sometime!
Oh, and kudos for a good first post
Sam