Manually save (in menu) and exit (exiting prevents the save from being lost in a crash) often so when your game crashes you won't lose too much time. You MUST exit and re-enter to make your save not disappear when you crash.
My favourite part about this game, besides the long server loading times, is when in the middle of the race it'll teleport you back to the start and just stay on a frozen screen.
Typo I'm guessing in the awards for the Time Stopper Achievements- they give 8, 16 and 25 souls. Pretty sure this should be at least 8000, 16000 and 25000...