How are people getting such great lap times?

Driving with the assists turned off is insanely difficult. I have no clue how anyone can even get used to no traction, stability n especially abs. I use traction and stability on sport not fully on n it helps. And using clutch sucks absolutely garbage on a controller. I can drive a manual in a real car no problem but on a controller it just doesnt compute well. Idk. I do great in career mode and free play. But multiplayer is ridiculous how fast these people are. And then you have everyone crashing into you and somehow i get the penalty. I use the tuning app and so far its worked pretty well despite what others say. Idk. Guess its back to practicing over and over lol