So what has anyone here done with 3 days a week and still was able to ride at a race pace.

You could try one long day and then two harder days (intervals, hill climbing, etc).

Intervals, intervals, intervals. If you can do six well-structured hours a week, you'll be fine. Riding more is great, but you can get away with lesser hours, especially if you're racing at a lower category.

Find a good hilly loop or find a faster friend to train with and push it.

dito the above.

I still do around 6 hrs and though my performance of late has been less than simply awesome, I can still make em hurt. Oh, if time is really a problem I think using the trainer will help optimize your training.