You wanna be a successful racing driver, you need money and skill. Virtualy every top racing driver has been in the same pennyless state as pilots in training.
They need to stump up their own cash through the lower echelons of the sports, paying tens of thousands in the hope that they will impress enough to get one of the 22-24 jobs in formula 1. Not good odds really. Most will spend their years living by annual contracts, on poor money, unnoticed by the cameras and the paying public.
The point is that with both flying and driving you need 3 vital atributes. Money, skill and desire. Granted if you have enough money, you can buy your way through the vast majority, but if you have skill and determination you can succeed. It has taken me 10 years to build £32,000 to pursue my dream. I have shown the determination to get to a point where I can start, and will have to remain determined as I have to work throughout the modular training route.
Virtually anything is possible given the willpower, all that money means is you can start sooner, and make more mistakes before your funding runs out. If you really want to fly, you just need patience and hard work to build the resources. I would suggest the vast majority out there have had to work hard and provide their own cash/security to pursue their ambitions. It doesn't make them any better or worse a pilot than someone who had daddy's support, but it may make them a more desireable candidate to the airlines. IMHO.
Chin up peeps, keep chasing that dream.
Obs cop