A new player, I'm not getting something re:Challenges

I understand that there is a learning curve but I think this is something I am just not getting. Hopefully I can have this explained.

Starting out I did the "Senseless Destruction". Good fun.
Then I chose "A Rocky Start".
Again, good fun for the first mission.
Once that mission completed, I was placed back in the truck with no direction. Confused, I started driving (took an immediate left) and found the "Gravity Race" as a fluke.
Did that. When I clicked on "Next" my truck was at a T intersection and there were no missions around me.

I pressed M for map, and I can see a whole bunch of blue missions and some green destinations. I then click on (for example) "Around the Bend" and quick travel to that point. No missions available. I am pretty sure the large beige-ish circle is what I should be looking for. There's no mission at that location (that I can find).
I then choose another random one "Pigeons on the Roof" and quick travel. No mission again.

I've got 76km worth of driving and I still do not understand how to find a place on the map which has available missions.

I click on "Ridge Race". The mission banner on the left side says "New! Ridge Race: Best Time: - "
I drove there and there is no mission start at that location.

Please, tell me what I'm missing here. I really like the game but driving around crashing/drifting/drift-crashing is only so fun for so long

How do I progress in the campaign?
How do I find a mission to play?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

These campaigns are sort of going away. Most of this stuff is getting moved into the career mode or split out as single scenarios/playable missions on maps. Just give the career mode a try, click it a few times in the main menu to 'unlock' it

 

Thank you for that. The career was greyed out so I never thought to click it.

Having a blast playing the career mode. Thanks very much.