Longer races, those of ten laps of more, will tend to have qualifying events attached to them. For example, the GP championship, the last one on the list, has them.
During qualifying, you'll get a standing start on a reconnaissance lap - which is NOT your qualifying lap, despite the lap counter showing 1 of 1 - which you can use to check track limits and quickly try to learn the layout a bit. Make sure you carry speed out of the final corner, because the next lap is what counts if you also want to unlock:
Do the best you can over the single lap. Don't cut inside the bollards, brake in advance of corners and accelerate out of them (exit speed!) and don't worry about other cars - you ghost in quali, so you can't hit them.
Cross the line, and hope you were quick enough for pole position!
This can be done on the easiest difficulty!