Just dive in the waters fine.
You don't need a track to make big progress on your skills & "in my opinion" it really doesn't pay off till you have a few builds under your belt.
We got into the middle of the pack without one.
Send in a car & see where you are as a starting point then move forward.
Start with the basics, Rear drill, wheel & axle prep, & 4" of steer over 4', there is way more to it but we all started somewhere & all the information is here in the forums.
The easy speed comes quickly, then you start loosing your mind over a .01 or .005 sec. Yep it's going to happen.
Lets say a test track is $1000 or more..You can run a lot of proxy races @ $10 a pop + shipping, if you build more cars you get more data & speed sooner.
Keep in mind these guys " not me" are the fastest in the country, so that took the sting out of 15th place for me.
You have to race the clock for now not the pros.