For context, I think the most "serious" car game I've ever played before Forza Horizon 5 is Cruis'n USA, sooo... can't say I know jack shit about racing games.

That said, from what I've seen, it sounds like if I actually want to take races seriously (i.e. trying to have competitive track times), drifting around corners is little more than a stylish way to land myself in last place?

Point being: I generally find the controlled loss of control of drifting to be a hell of a lot of fun, so I wouldn't mind if it were "more difficult but equally viable" to taking fully controlled racing lines. But if it's going to tank my times no matter how much I practice, I'd like to focus on learning proper racing technique and save the drifting for free roaming around the map.