Racing is daunting at first, but the only way to find out if it's for you, or for that matter what kind of races you'll enjoy... is to DO a bunch of them. I'm no crit fan either, but they are great fitness and bike handling experience races. I used to do them weekly, even got a result or two even though I'm no sprinter (breakaways). If you find the right crit series, learn the course, get used to it, you might like them. I started to. But I greatly prefer circuit and road races. That's why I go to the city to race in those races, I like them more than the Bethel CT crits (although as crits go, that's about the best series I can recall, used to like those too, well organized safe, etc).