Read my post immediately above yours. I believe they doubled the clean racing xp to encourage clean racing as opposed to wallriding and the like.
Also Jonk said this in the other thread:
The person who crosses the finish line first is always the winner in Horizon MP races. There is also a separate XP championship running alongside races where those who don’t cross the line in the top can still accomplish something.
So in short there are 4 winners in each race only adventure ie the 4 people who cross the finish line first.
What MasterMedic is trying to say is why do people place so much importance in the xp leaderboard? Why if all you want to do is race to the finish line do you not just focus on the race results screen and ignore the xp screen?
Why do people need what is nothing more than the proverbial cookie to enjoy racing online?