AFAICT there are 4 icons that appear after driver names:
I think the crown reflect two variations on VIP, but I’m not sure what the two variations are?
And are the shields T10/PG employees? If so, which is which?
I believe the following:
Crown = ViP
Nicer Crown = idk, never saw it. Grand Master rank maybe?
Shield Star = Clan owner
Shield = Clan “lieutenant”
Those are all speculation, please if anyone do know, share! 
Basic crown = VIP
Fancier crown = Ultimate edition VIP
Badge with star = Club leader
Badge with no star = Club co-leader
T10/PG employees have either a T10 or PG logo depending on who they work for.
In Horizon titles all staff use the Playground Games logo.
In Motorsport titles all staff use the Turn 10 logo.
The rest of your post is spot on.
I was pretty dang close xD
I guess i have the fancier crown then? I never really realise that!
Now that im think about it, their should be an icon for Grand Master. Im not myself even ranked, but for those that do, it could be a nice thing to have.
Thanks for the info. I was going to rant about employees wallriding, but it seems it’s club leaders I should be ranting about.
Names removed to comply with forum policy:
I just had a go in a solo race to see what times I could do without traffic holding me up, and my best times with the Centenario were 36.8 clean, 34.0 wallriding. In the rivals event on there I’m within 1.4 secs of world #1, so 3rd and 4th seem pretty likely to have been wallriding (I saw one person blatantly wallriding at one point, and think that was one of the 3rd/4th place finishers). 1 and 2 seem almost certain to have been wallriding, indeed 33.4 seems pretty fast even by wallriding standards compared to my wallriding 34.0!
Regarding the icons - what does the helmet mean? Got at LEGO valley some races where a few drivatars have a symbolized helmet as icon beyond their name like other have a crown or the shield or both…
Helmet is stunt superstar, 3 star all mainland stunts like me less than1% (0.80%) of players.
I am the 1%… lol.
I wish there was a way of removing it but now I have it set, the game crashes if I try and change it (remove it or change for another one). Whether they are aware of this or intend to fix it, I have no idea.
Thank you for your answer, so I am one with a helmet too…… lol
Edit: Did a checkup in the game, no helmet at all, only the vip/ultimate crown. May be the star map challenges are made for those, who wanted some icon near their name too.
By helmet do you mean this?
Also, what this symbol means?
You have to chose to put the stunt helmet after your name in the card settings.
I think that Legendary should have a pair of angel wings.
So what does the checkered flag after a player name mean?
The checkered flag is a flair reward for completing the Racing Superstar objectives on your Starcard, which is found next to the Eliminator portal under the Horizon Life game tab.
What about the magnifying glass symbol and any new symbols that might be in Forza Horizon 5?
You can check what all the symbols mean in your star cards, but the magnifying glass is for “superstar explorer” in FH4. FH5 has a different symbol system though, so it depends which symbol you’re referring to.
Oh ok thanks for answering my question speaking of which what does the star symbol mean cause apparently I have one in FH5
The star next to your levels with a number below it is a prestige icon, which just means you’ve levelled up a lot (300lv → 1 star, 400lv → 2 stars, etc…). I’m not too sure what the star on the right of your username means in FH5 though. It could be one of the badges you can earn in the game, I’m not sure. But I’ll do some research to see if I can find anything though.
Edit: I’ve done as much research as I can and here’s everything it could mean:
You’re probably better off asking under FH5 Discussion though. I play more on FH4 so I can’t help you out very much, sorry.