if you're like me and started sucking ass at the campaign around the time you unlock the Barracuda Model S (Enter Reality achievement), here's a small tip for you (unsure how much it'll help but it did help me get golds on most of the races a little easier)

prerequisite: be decent enough at handling to fly a ship like Nexus, Diavolt, or Orbitronix (anything with good speed stats really)

1. start the game, go into game settings.
2. go to the assists section on the far right.
3. disable "ai matches player speed"
4. Fly races with an aforementioned ship

the game explains what this does, but I'll paraphrase here: with this setting on, the ai's speed stats roughly match yours (not perfectly), to provide assistance to players that feel better on the beginner ships with lower speed stats. turning the setting off and playing on a higher speed ship will allow you to outpace the ai a little easier.

obviously this won't totally make up for any mistakes you may make and obviously also does not apply to time trials (which is really where this game's unforgiving nature lies), as well as the barracuda races and other even types, but if the normal races are proving to be a bit much then hopefully this helps.