It is hard, very hard. And I, like imjonah, have chosen to stick it out for awhile. But I think many newbies are going to be turned off by the amount of effort required (from a mechanic standpoint) to be competetive. You have to be a expert motor tuner, an expert in chassis set-up, knowledgable about the electrics part (battery charging-discharging) the money to field all of this AND then finally you can worry about being a good driver.
What are my choices if I want to race RC and just worry about driving? If I had unlimited funds, my choice would be to just pay somebody to be my mechanic/tuner ect and supply me with a car that I never have to touch. He would put it on the track, I would would race for five minutes, he would take it off the track and I would go watch TV until the next heat. Unfortunately that is not realistic and I'm forced to do alot of work, just to race for a little while.