I already said a bit earlier, but I'll comment again on something else. I've only done 2 leagues in LFS (in all my sim racing, actually). Yes, I was nervous at race starts, more so in the first league I had ever done. That league was comprised of several servers and each server ran equivilent times to their server competition. The second league was only a handful of people (15 or so) and I wasn't nearly as nervous. That was more because I had known that the majority were GTR (the sim) guys and was only using LFS briefly waiting for GTR2. There were a few LFS veterans, but they were minority.
Once in the swing of things with league racing, it was chill time. I would get in a rythm where it was just cruising along. Then as the laps wore down, and the folks ahead started to get closer, the heat came on again.
The big thing I had with league racing, is both leagues was late in the evening (finish around 11:00-11:15 pm). There was no way I was going to bed for quite a while after league racing. I had tried for the first few races, and just lay in bed, heart still racing, mind still going over the race lap by lap, what I did wrong, what others did wrong that I could have taken advantage, etc. That was the biggest thing for me, especially with the league divided up between a few servers. That one was Sunday night, and 5 am Monday morning is time to get up, so I wouldnt get much sleep.