My computer is getting old and arthritic, so it can't really run BeamNG the it wants me too. Everytime I start the game up, I have to set my graphics settings. Not really game-breaking, just annoying. ON the bright side, I can finally cross this game off my list of games to wait for! It's everything I dreamed of.
Change the settings then quit before doing anything else. It saves them as long as the game doesn't crash.
This^ Also if it crashes when selecting the exit/quit button on the main menu then press the ~(tilde) key and type "quit" without quotes. WIth any luck it'll save your settings and exit without crashing (Mine does).