Have any of you folks picked up racing after 50?

I've always been a recreational rider. Mostly solo rides of 50-70 miles, centuries, etc. Never particularly competitive (mostly like benchmarking my own progress), and I've never dug group rides (though chatting with someone for a few miles when you roll up next to each other at a stoplight or at a coffee stop is great).

As I've gotten older, I've started adding bucket list rides to help shake a fist at the Reaper. PBP 2027 is on the list, as is an Everesting. Mostly things to challenge myself to do before I'm too old.

But I'm starting to be intrigued by the idea of racing, even if I'm not going to be all that competitive. It's a reason for an n+1, too. I'm going to do a tri next year, though I'm 99% certain that's a one-and-done. So I'm looking at options, but I'm also almost 53. That's not OLD, but it's not young--particularly for getting started and learning noob skills, and injuries are a much bigger deal at this age (plus, my wife has some health issues, so I should really avoid broken collarbones at all costs).

Crit racing sounds cool, but I just don't think I could hang without crashing out. TTs seem pretty safe (at least any crashes would be my own fault), but not very communal. SSCX would be ideal, but we don't really have a CX scene in San Diego (though we do have tracklocross). And then there's gravel, which seems like it ight be the best balance of practicality, fairly low risk, and a mixture of event lengths with a few nutty goals races (like Unbound) if I ever went bonkers with it.

Anyone else go through a similar process? I'd love to hear what you landed on.