Just done a career race on Prague Full in an S800 Merc CLK-GTR, in a fairly respectable 1:58.694 clean (career race with Pro Drivatars).
Feeling good at having climbed 87,425 slots I check the leaderboard: 6,630th out of 380,962, which means Top 2% -Yay!
Press X twice: Top 39% on my Friends leaderboard :-/
I have some fast Friends!
TTFN
Toni
P.S. Not a rant - just a humbling observation …
I’m pretty slow! Follow me for my sloth-like drivatar.
Now that is funny!!!
Your Drivatar should be more or less as fast as any other. My wife is terrible and can barely get by with all assists on and the lowest possible Drivatar difficulty, but when she’s in my races her Drivatar is one of the fastest in the field even on the top difficulty settings. This is because your Drivatar’s pace has nothing to do with your own pace. It mimics your behaviors but not your lap times. Ratchet the difficulty up to Pro or Unbeatable and any Drivatar can be running laps that would belong in the top 1% of the leaderboard.
Good to know! I often don’t use assists, which slows me down a little more than usual because I’m really bad at downshifting! Still learning though 
You’ll always be slower in career mode races due to the traffic which, in turn, causes your lap to invalidate. Take a shot at beating your friends in Rivals mode … odds are, that is where they recorded some of their faster laps.
Not to be argumentative, but I get a top 2% time during a career race. I just find it interesting I can get in the top 7,000 with a race like that, yet four out of ten friends of mine are still quicker … how did I accumulate these chums? Mostly online, but I just find it interesting, and wanted to mention it …
How would one accumulate slower friends? Thought exercise.
TTFN
Toni
But the 39% of your friends list with faster times may have set them in rivals mode because there are not separate leaderboards. They may have also been in leaderboard cars for that class. That is where its apples and oranges in career mode - you set a quick apple and they have set a quick orange.
Racing online or randomly adding people you see on the leaderboards. Lol.
Ya know, I often feel that way… haven’t really tried to join or start any clubs yet but it’s probably time.
My main thing is that I love the driving but I’m just not very good at it. I get comments in lobbies asking how I got to the 900’s, and then they’re surprised when I’m usually racing the 45-second clock o beat the dreaded DNF for a bronze (and delighted each time I get it!)
But, you don’t have to be good to be persistent. And you don’t have to be good to have fun, you just have to be not bad and not a troll. I’m at that level because I’ve driven over 20K miles and never quit a race. And there’s a lot of nice guys out on the tracks: I often get helpful advice from better drivers. And I try hard to apply that advice, guys, really I do.
I’ve thought about how FM lobbies could use a better lobby algorithm, to compare logged multiplayer race times, but I don’t know if there are enough online racers to pull it off… I can imagine waiting in a lobby for an hour, hoping that rchase5 or another racer about my speed comes along.
I can offer you another faster friend to continue to help you get better. 
That’s how I got better. Chasing faster ghosts.
Whatever you do, don’t befriend me! No but really what Shadow Edge said is true. You are comparing apples to oranges. You should take pride in the fact you set good times racing in the career mode, however, if you compete with those same friends in Rivals mode and pick up a tune you should be much faster due to the fact you don’t have to maneuver through other cars in your racing line. The car build also makes a huge difference. I have some tunes for D Class shared. Go play the Alps tracks in Rivals Mode with one of these tunes and I’m sure you will be seeing those same friends in your rear view mirror. Have fun and good luck.
Geez, the guy gets one top ten time and now he’s Mario Andretti??? Just kidding buddy, you can be quite fast, you just don’t play the game very often it seems.
To the OP, start racing those fast friends in online lobbies (private is my choice, but public is fine too). You won’t notice it at first, but you’ll get much faster trying to keep up with them. I have a mixture of all types on my friends list. From newbs that can barely drive to some of the fastest players in the game. I’ve learned a lot from all of them…
Hey Lou! Wish I had more time. Perspectives are funny though, my wife tells me I play too much. By the way, I have 2 top ten “hardcore” times. You guys still use me up in multiplayer though. I may need some slower friends myself. Toni, are you there?
Haha I’m slow
You can add me if you want. Oh wait…LOL. But seriously, you were doing pretty well online last night.
Speed is all relative. When the snail got mugged by the two turtles, the police asked him if he could describe the assailants. He told them that it all happened so fast he couldn’t get a good look at them.
Dude… you crack me up. That was funny. But you are showing your age my friend
Good analogy, but i would disagree. Speed isnt relative… its completely measurable and comparable however ones views of what is quick is relative. Typically, quick but relatively even with someone is probably within .5 seconds of them of the leaderboards. Which is also tough because unless you are at the top of the leaderboard you arent certain if this was within a race, poor tune etc.
I agree with the others here. I can usually turn a pretty fast time in an actual career race, only to smoke the time when I’m in Rivals Mode. There, I have no distractions and as many laps as it takes to nail each turn. I’ve been there, patting myself on the back for a best-lap time in a race that seemed really fast (top-tier in the global boards) only to see the Rivals mini-leaderboard has me ranked below most of my friends. I go all Time Attack on them and usually post a better time with a little practice and a few laps.