If you go to the local race track, you'll see guys racing hobby stocks, whatever, and doing a lousy job because they don't have the skills and they don't do it all the time. Same thing here.
A real difference between club racing in Europe and here is that the clubs are organized with coaches that teach racing and bike handling technique. Here, you buy a bike, plunks down yer money and go racin'. I've watched a few of the 4 and 5 races. It's positively frightening. Head down sprints. No sense of other riders. By the way, almost all of the guys who sprint with their heads down can't lift them as their bikes are improperly fitted.
I feel for you. I am so very glad that I came out of a system as a junior and never, as an adult, raced in lower classes. I quit racing all together when my employment/career was important enough that being laid up in the hospital was not an option.