Wondering if anyone has any experience or recommendations on this. My absolute max HR is only achieved in races. No matter how hard an effort I do in training I max out at about 175 or so. In races I can get up to 183. So my main question is when training which HR do I use to inform my zones?
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Use your max heart rate, which appears to be 183.
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It’s normal that you can produce higher heart rates racing. Use the one from racing.
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This article claims the opposite. That a max set under high adrenaline situations should not be used to train by.
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This numbers are nigh identical to mine. In races I peaked at 184–185 bpm, but even on workouts or ramp tests that left me gasping for air, my heart rate never went beyond 175 bpm.
Does it matter?
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Are HR zones useful?
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If you decide they are, and you decide to ride by them, just stick to the middle of the zone and it won’t really matter which max figure you choose.
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RPE is king.
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I’d definitely agree with using your training max HR for training purposes to ensure you’re comparing apples to apples. 
With that being said, I don’t recommend using max HR to calculate HR zones though. In my experience using your threshold HR is much better.
I often recommend this article for reference. 
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Right. Set your HR zones based off Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR). Do the 20 minute test for it.