Hi Colton,
I am certain you will oodles of posts to this, just remember advice is easy to give but hard to follow: Here is my two cents:
Before investing lots of money and time to convert or even buy a race rig, consider this....look at the various racing groups in your area, review their race summaries and give their safety requirments a good look.....select a race series that might allow you to simply modify your rig to meet safety requirments but not lose your family use, that has a sportman class or a segmented class by cc's that allows for newbies to run this class for 3-4 races before deciding to be placed into the larger and more competitive classes....
Next contact the series to see which tracks might be best for a sportsman to try out first.......set a goal to finish and not break the car or your mellon........make a family weekend out of it and then, after all this, go have a good time.
Do this a few times, and I suspect you will be better able to answer some or all of the questions you have asked....
just my thoughts.......but advice I was given some time back that has served me well....