I raced through jr high/highschool. Took 4 years off and started a team at my uni. But the team competed in skier X, Slalom, GS, Pipe, and slopestyle, so it was actually so much fun.
I loved going down the Slalom course on center mounted park skis, no shin guards, and no pole guards... My knuckles were black every weekend we raced, sooooo fun.
But its true, you can almost instantly recognize a skier who used to race, stance is different and they know how to use their poles. All through ski school training whenever I had a different coach they always asked if I raced. I took it as a compliment.