The issue with these 3 races is R. Haywood's Hurracan. That car is WAY overpowered for its performance class. The base car is almost 30pp over the limit, so it's probably downtuned, but it's still a faster accelerating car than literally anything I've thrown at it, including Ferraris, Porsches, and Ford GTs.
You're never, ever going to match his acceleration, so he's always going to be pulling away from you or closing in on you, and there's nothing you can really do about that. I've tried countless tunes. However, he's not that great when it comes to taking the turns, so the only way to comfortably win these races is to have a car with phenomenal handling and good acceleration. Again, you're never going to match Haywood, but if you're too slow, no amount of perfect cornering is going to save you.
I've done these races with more than 30 cars so far just to see if I can find anything that really Works, and drive a wider variety of cars than other races may allow, and some are easier than others. But the furthest ahead I've ever been with a win is about 5 seconds, assuming Haywood is in second. Which he almost always will be unless he starts toward the back of the pack, because his AI can't pass. So you can keep exiting and coming back until he's in an easier placement, but, the difficulty of the other AI is still higher than most other events. You still need to have a car with excellent handling.
After that, it all comes down to skill.