Silver Lining

Badges are in the driver profile area, you have to manually equip them. Badges unlock from Bronze->Silver->Gold->etc naturally as you continue to race and do various things while racing (e.g. pass other cars, perfect corners, etc). Technically you have to grind to unlock the badge level, but then consciously go into profile to equip it. It will take some time, but soon you will have badges of increasing levels available to be equipped.