Apparently not - the burnout is by design (especially in the non-arcade mode), to send you to the back, so that the rest of the round is spent catching up to the CPU and *hopefully* coming in first place. Otherwise, even on highest difficulty, you'd quickly get to first place and just.. stay there, uncontested.

But! Even with the burnout, you are able to stay in the CPU's slipstream, which should give you enough momentum to stay relatively close and not fall really far behind.

Failing that, it's not impossible to win even when you're forced to start at 20th place :)

Yeah, I thought so. True that without it, it would be too easy (although I played on Medium so far, and thought maybe on Hard it is much more difficult).
But with it, the place at which you start is highly irrelevant.
First time I tried to stay in guys slipstream at start, I got rammed and spinned by everyone behind me, so I stayed even further away :D

That's what always happens to me! Agreed. What's the point if I'm going to get sent to the back of the pack?

Actually, I played today Grand Prix mode, and if you start at the front and maneuver correctly, you may end up around 18-19 place and not totally behind, so it's not entirely for nothing.