T1 Class corresponded to the Pokémon World Championships, which appeared in the Black 2/White 2 games.
"The racing events are on pretty much the same scale. T2 is Kanto's top tier of racing, the Regional Championships."
After obtaining a driver's license, drivers needed to earn qualifying records in legally registered regular races: finishing safely, sustaining limited vehicle damage, committing few fouls, and so on.
Accumulating enough qualifying records proved that a driver had the most basic ability to finish races safely. Only then were they considered to have entered the field and could begin accumulating points and entering T3 Races.
The threshold here was very low. The hard part was accumulating points in T3 Races and larger regular races to actually earn the "T3-class driver" certification on their Racing License.
Becoming a T3-class driver was also called "making one's debut," and meant that one could just barely be considered a professional.
Only after this explanation did Chansey understand how difficult Class T Competitions really were.
[No wonder... I thought Lilligant was practically unbeatable on Island 6 and Island 5, already well beyond an entry-level driver.]
"That's because you were treating T3 as the beginner zone. Of course that's wrong."
The vast majority of drivers rose and fell within T3 Races, or had dropped down from T2.
That was fine if racing was just a hobby, but if someone truly made being a Racing Driver their lifelong career, bouncing up and down like that earned them no money, yet they had just enough skill to make giving it up difficult.
A sunk-cost dilemma: something of little value that was still hard to abandon.
In the courtyard below, Lilligant waved up at them. Some adjustment to the race car probably required muscle.
"Let's go down."
[Okay!]
Chansey leaped off the balcony and