How difficult is it to avoid ground loop in practice?
Your simulator gives you a realistic experience: This is normal. What you experience is the gyro effect of the propeller and engine while you change the pitch attitude. When you lift the tail, the axis of rotation is changed and the engine-propeller combination pushed downwards, causing a precession force which acts orthogonally to the plane defined by the down movement and the axis of rotation.

Since the engine is forward of the center of gravity, this precession force is pushing the nose sideways: Left for a propeller which spins clockwise (when observed from the pilot's viewpoint), and vice versa.

The best way to avoid a change in direction is to keep the tail to the ground with the stick aft until you know you are fast enough to lift the tail, and when you lift the tail up, you apply rudder simultaneously. Don't let the tail come up by itself!

I learned this in a Dimona motorglider. Now think of flying a small, light airplane where the propeller is bolted firmly to the heavy engine crankcase, both rotating. The airplane will dive or climb when you change direction! This is what pilots had to endure in the First World War, when they flew aircraft with rotary engines. When engines became more powerful, this became so bad that some aircraft were almost unflyable. See this answer for more.

That crosswind is turning the nose into the wind after lifting the tail should also be no surprise: While the main gear is still on the ground, the plane will weathervane into the wind once the tail is lifted.