When you are asked to pick a contract, each team will have an objective. For example a team with objective "11" means that you must achieve an 11th place finish to complete it.
However, you can get this very quickly on your first season by picking a team with an 11th place objective and skipping all races. Even though you placed 12th, the game has a glitch that registers you as one place higher than you should be. SincereSeeker6 has a more detailed explanation of the glitch here:
How to complete ETRC under 10 hours