which suspension is best to run in races.. hard,medium,or soft. also with that suspension is it best to have the car low to the ground or raised

Depends on the track..

Big jumps: Hard
Small jumps: Soft

You want it low to the ground so you dont roll when cutting corners, but you dont want to bottem out on the jumps..

Andrew

depends on track conditions, the amount of turns on the track, the difficulty of jumps on the track, the type of grounds the track is formed from.
You get to learn how to set up your suspension on how you drive as well by running a tank on the track then going back to the pit table to try something else and see how you run again

Soft front=more steering
soft rear=understeer

hard front=less steering
hard rear=oversteer (like drifting)

im leaning toward medium springs right now

what your track like?

tuning suspension can be tricky as springs are just a part to decide on which to use.
You need to also realize that weight of shock oil, shock piston used, how many shock spacer clips or amount of threads was made on the shock body, and what holes you are mounting to on the shock tower and suspension arm....are all types of adjustments on the shocks and how they perform.
How hard or soft the springs you choose are just the beginning

It would be nice to find some sort of detailed explanation of tuning the suspension in different ways.....as this still has me confused at times. I just know what I have been doing on my own stuff and what works for me and my and my driving style.

I thought this was helpful but my local "track" sucks and needs some serious work.

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=127029

I like to run a little on the soft side of medium on most tracks, Usually with firm springs and around 25 wt oil, this then leaves me with one quandry to tune for tacks, anti roll bar thickness or none at all. I'm not saying I run that all the time, but for most euro tracks it works a peach. But when I'm out for big air, the roll bars are at their thickest and the oil is up to 40wt. You'll also find that the tyres also affect how you should set up your suspension too. A high grip tyre will require a firmer pack to attain the best control.

The biggest tip I can give you with suspension is to just change one thing at a time and test that, if it fails then go back a step and test something else. Eventually you will learn what affects what and what you need to do to get what you want.