X-Plane never forces you to update. We strongly recommend it and will not troubleshoot old versions, and the sim will annoy you with on screen pop ups until you do, but it is always an option to stay on an older version.
But that's beside the point. You're on the latest now and having problems. Have you tried resetting to default preferences? Move the preferences folder (found in the Output folder) to the desktop, then restart X‑Plane and default preferences will be restored. If the default preferences do not fix your problem, you can simply replace them with the folder you moved to the desktop and restore your personalized settings.
Try updating graphics drivers as another person commented. Be sure to send the automatic report if the crash reporter comes up. Attaching a copy of the full log.txt might provide more insight as well.