Have you ever been in a situation driving on the road when your skills of autocross or other forms of racing comes in handy. Just tonight I would of crashed right into a out of control SUV with a trailer in the snow If I would of stayed on the brakes. Instead some nice gas work and steering, I missed the damn SUV 3 times. Guy was driving like a douch in the snow. Also this month I almost hit two deers but I went between the two of them like autocross cones :p When in doubt gas out hahahah
Was surprised by a patch of ice while making a right turn. Car was headed for the curb at 40+. Was able to steer back to the left with a bit more throttle and abort the turn.
A guy lost it a little ahead of me on the interstate one time and came sweeping across all lanes of traffic. I stifled my immediate impulse to brake, stuffed it into 3rd, and matted the throttle. He slid right across behind me; probably would have tagged me a good one if I had tried to slow down.
Basically always. Having seen how a lot of my friends drive, the ones that I do HPDEs and autox with are noticeably different than the average guy. I'm fairly convinced that being an active driving enthusiast and learning proper car control also seems to mean that that person is generally more attentive to other vehicles on the road, in addition to being able to avoid potential accidents.
Times when you are glad you know how to drive
Every time I want to go somewhere. 
To the rest... it's hard to say how much 15 years of track time and racing has done to keep me alive and dent free because I didn't have much trouble with it in the 15 years of driving and riding that came before. I will go as far as to say because of W2W racing I have a great deal of confidence in my ability to see, predict, and react correctly to things way before the rest of the cars around me and that gives me a greater margin to avoid trouble that other people drive right in to. Even if that means to keep driving as far into the crash as I can.
Who knows though... there are plenty of situations you can't see, predict or plan for. Those are when I'll wish I had the roll cage in my street car or bike.
It seems like at least once a week. I am always amazed at how unaware most drivers are of the vehicles, bicyclists, pedestrians, animals etc. around them. Then there is the guy who rear ended me this summer. I stopped for a red light, he didn't even hit the brakes.
Last winter I took the wife's Highlander to work on a snowy day. Skills sets paid off on the way home. I was moving from the left lane back to the right lane. As I moved across the slushy section between lanes, I backed of the throttle then transitioned across. This technique worked great for decades. The AWD system sensed something and the next thing I know I am going down a hill sideways at 45 mph. The dash lit up like a Christmas tree and warning buzzers were buzzing. Really? I kinda know I'm in a situation here. Yes, yes, turn into the skid. But turning too much will result in snapping back around. Experience took over and I turned into the skid about 15º and waited...and waited... and waited. Eventually the car started slowly coming back to aiming in the right direction and all was good. Without the skid experience I would have bounced off both guardrails to the bottom of the hill.
Hit black ice at the entrance to a wide right sweeper Monday morning. Got to turn it into a nice 3rd gear drift and carried on like nothing happened. On the other side of the median some eyes got real wide.
As noted above, braking is one of the last things to do in slippery conditions but for most people it is the first thing they do. Lock up all four wheels an go sliding.
For me, threshold braking in ice racing has been a help.
Knowing that there is a limit and that things can go wrong when you flirt with that limit helps me stay careful when the urge to have fun on a slippery road comes around.
So many new drivers (kids) get in to accidents because, since they've never come close to a skid, they feel invincible. All they get in driver ed is "If you start to skid, turn the wheels into the skid." Not helpful unless you know what it feels like.
One of our highschool students crashed their car in the snow then soon after crashed their parents' vehicle.
Ok. Rant over. If I ever have kids they will be going through a defensive driving/car control course before they start spending time on the road.
Anytime its wet or snowy/icey. Really fun to watch peoples faces as you pull a second gear drift across an intersection that you went into way to hot. Even when its dry ive noticed that people who are driving enthusiasts and attend events tend to be more aware.
Being able to steer with the throttle (rwd and some awd) has come in very handy at times.
That's something that comes naturally to me and scares the E36 M3 out of 99% of everyone else.
Pretty much every day, someone does something stupid in front of me.
Every time I'm on a dirt road when I'm the only driver on it. 
JacktheRiffer wrote: Anytime its wet or snowy/icey. Really fun to watch peoples faces as you pull a second gear drift across an intersection that you went into way to hot. Even when its dry ive noticed that people who are driving enthusiasts and attend events tend to be more aware.
This, from mid October to mid April especially when I had my mustang. Biggest reason I miss that car actually, legal hooning half the year thanks to snow and Ice everywhere.
almost everyday around here. It snowed today, not enough to stick, but people are -still- doing 70+mph in a 50mph area and zipping in and out of slower traffic
We're all hero drivers, aren't we 
What my track and racing driving has done for me is slow me down on the road. Hooning on the street just isn't that exciting, so I'm not the guy powersliding through the intersection.
Now, being a car guy means I pay more attention to my driving than some others do. And as noted above, that usually means a bit more awareness. I know my wife is a better driver now than she was when I met her, because driving well is something that's now a priority instead of just sitting in the car and being transported around.
Once while in a snowstorm in traffic climbing the hill on I-80 before 380 in PA, a lincoln LS spun in front of me. I think I heard Dorsey Schroeder's voice in my head say "when the guy in front of you spins & you have to decide to go left or right....aim for where he is now, cuz he isn't gonna be there for long!" I did & it missed him when he got caught up in the over-correction-loop loop and spun off into the ditch.
I think it was Dorsey because it wasn't a british accent, that would have been Jackie Stewart.
Had the family in the truck coming home from christmas shopping last year coming home on a twisty road shortcut. It's dark and up ahead i see headlights of an oncoming vehicle swing left, then right, then left, and all of them entirely too fast for the drop away off camber sweeper they were coming down. I had just enough time to launch the family truckster across both lanes into someones front yard. Just as I'm taking up both lanes broadside with my wife in the passenger seat I see the other vehicle. Ford ranger flare side in the midst of one of it's 5 barrel rolls completely taking up both lanes sideways. They missed us by a foot. Had wifee flagging traffic with my Harbor Freight flashlight collection. The Ranger ends up stopping on it's roof as i run over. To my surprise a young guy pops out the drives side open window unharmed. I start to talk to him and he starts shouting for his buddy who was in the car. My heart just sank as I couldn't imagine it ending well given the state of the ranger. Amazingly we were able to yank his buddy out who was wedged in there after some efforts.
While it ended well I can't help thinking it would have been better to take a hit head-on than put the wifee in a tbone position... Thank You Autocross
I think the best thing autocross has done for my street driving is switch my first thought/reaction from the brake to the steering wheel. At least twice in the past year had I used the brakes instead of a tire squawking lane change it, only would have made the t-bone accident a little less severe. Incidentally, both other cars were drivers with a cell phone in one hand and cigarette in the other.
BTW - the other positive is autocross has made me a "two hands on the wheel" driver. The first time my son is old enough to autocross, I'm going to make him do the slalom one handed just to prove that point. I apologize in advance to the corner workers.
I have before me a personalized offer of a discount of up to $2500 on a new Jaguar. Eat your hearts out. The XF apparently comes with "Intuitive handling, control and adaptive dynamics," and "Blind spot monitoring." However, there is a footnote: "Driver should not assume that these features will correct errors of judgment in driving." Well all right, then.
The most direct translation of autocross skills was driving through Hannibal, MO. A Jeep slid through a stop sign perpendicular to the 35 mph road I was on. I pretended he was a Chicago box and jab-left-jab-right'd myself around that mess.
The most direct translation of corner-working skills was responding to my own crash last winter. I calmly told 911 about my "non-injury crash at mile marker ## on I-80 East," calmly assessed what I considered to be the safest location when my car's lights went off, calmly left the car (black at night with no lights = no longer safest), calmly reached into the trunk for my high-vis vest, and then calmly informed the 911 operator that "I have an update, my car is now on fire."
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