These are just suggestions. You'll want to experiment and see what works best for you.

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Garage Setup - Nearly always use soft suspension. It allows you to "lean" into curves, and if you get knocked into the air you are more likely to keep your feet when you land.

Medium tread depth is safest for most tracks unless you know ahead of time that deep or shallow may be more helpful. But usually you have a variety of terrain, and medium depth is most forgiving.

Gear ratio depends on the track. Once you know the layout of a race, high speed (1800 - 2000) results in the best times. But don't expect to do well on a new, unseen track when you're going that fast! You'll fly off unexpected curves. Low gear ratio (600 - 800) is best for rumbles where you do a lot of tight maneuvering and need fast truck response.

TIP: Get in the habit of going to the Garage screen every time you launch the game. Different tracks require different settings, and you might forget otherwise. You aren't likely to win many races with your truck set up for a rumble!

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Racing - Practice against the computer on Professional level; the computer trucks may show you some shortcuts! You also go faster. Some jumps may be impossible for rookies at low gear ratios.

Race using as high a gear ratio as you can manage while still being able to control your truck in the turns. The computer trucks will always be geared to approximately the same speed as your own, so your speeds will always be similar. But when you play online with live people they'll always have it cranked up to max!

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Rumbling - Don't forget you have a reverse gear! Most people expect you to come charging at them full blast for a head-on-collision. But if you back up suddenly and turn out of their way, it often takes them by surprise and they can fly right past you! This comes in handy when you are climbing a ramp to the summit, and someone comes running at you to keep you from getting up. You can change directions and back up nice and fast going uphill, but they often can't stop in time and end up going off the edge themselves!

Turn your lights OFF in dusk and night conditions (by pressing the "L" key) if you can see well enough without them. Your lights just help your opponents pinpoint exactly where you are coming up the summit.

Try not to take a direct hit. Turn away from a collision when it looks like you're going to get the worst of it. This helps reduce the chance that you'll go flying too far.

Play the "points" smart. You don't get points for knocking someone else off, so don't try to force a knockoff if there's a chance you will go over the edge too. You lose 50 points if you go off yourself, but that can be made up by only 5 seconds in the scoring zone. So falling off is not that devastating. It's more important to get back up fast so the other trucks don't get too far ahead. This means that sometimes it's better to drive off the summit intentionally and control your landing than to be knocked off and land upside-down. You can also "run" or "sit" and try to avoid being hit at all. But this is noticed quickly and you wind up being ganged-up on by irate players who will tell you that the purpose of a "rumble" after all, is to "mix it up"!