[Pawel Kusmierek]

One thing that I think is different is that track condition in practice/quali are different than in the race, and they improve throughout the quali. If built-in AC mechanism is used for that, note that how quickly conditions improve depends on the number of laps multiplied by the number of cars. So they will improve much faster if you have 20 cars on track than you have 5. Track conditions are also transferred between session (practice to quali to race) to some extent, see https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index...ngs.45370/ for more details.

I also wondering if, especially on borderline machines, having to deal with different computational load between the race and practicing alone may have an effect. If the computer in addition to dealing with your car physics has to handle server communication and rendering of up to 20 or so other cars, it might change things.

But I am pretty sure that much of it is in your head. I for example cannot maintain the same mindset when alone on the track (completely alone or away from any competitors) versus chasing someone or having someone breathing up my neck or rather up my rear bumper.