what is proper etiquette for driving in real life?

[LethalOatmeal]

what is proper etiquette for driving in real life races or your online races?

Swapping paint under any circumstances equals black flag?
I don't see any blue flags so far racing the AI, are blue flags there?
If I race an Alfa Romeo against the big V8s I can out brake and take the inside line into every corner, effectively blocking the other cars line so that either it has to brake hard or hit me - is this legal?
With the Alfa on long straight of ways, if I see I big V8 coming up behind, I can move to block its pass, is this ok?
I have just started with the manual clutch yesterday and find that if I rev match properly on the downshift I don't need to use the clutch button and upshifting doesn't require clutch under any circumstances except starting, I know I can shift in real life with out a clutch some of the time (all of the time once moving with a motorcycle, but isn't it bad for a car) and does shifting without clutch regularily occur in real life racing (probably not without rev limiter for upshift) and is it ok for your races?

[Roger]

Purely my opinion...........

Off-line - I block faster cars like crazy.

On-line I don't - I have buttons mapped saying "pass left" "pass right" :p

Avoid hard contact at all costs on-line. I have even driven off track a couple of times to avoid tagging someone - if that had been against AI they would have got a shove!

Sometimes a bit of a rub is hard to avoid. I have certainly arrived at the scene of a spin a few times and been unable to miss people, also tagged a couple being too ambitious trying to pass on the corner entry - that's what the "sorry" button is for :D

[Hakker]

I totally agree with Roger.

As far as clutching goes....sometimes in real life I don't use the clutch in my car or on my bike, it really doesn't matter which vehicle you choose as long as you have your rev right. That said I do have a small car, I don't know if I would try if I had a huge 4 liter engine....
And for sim racing: I don't have a clutch pedal so I don't use clutch. Shifting gears without clutch in real racing doesn't occur much I think, don't know. Most of the engines are too precious for that kind of stuff.