Please, get rid of the rubber banding in your AI.
It makes no sense, it makes the player feel their wins/losses are arbitrary rather than due to skill or lack there of. A good racing AI should...drive. Yes, drive. With some specific behaviors in mind like boxing players in, stay away being technically excellent(not over or under steering) and other things relevant to the game type. I could understand rubber banding if you have a combat aspect where the AIs will want to line themselves up with the player.
For a pure racing game where getting to the finish line first is everything? Having an AI roar past me only to slow down is terribly illogical. It's even worse if you have disparaging vehicle stats involved. If I drive a Ferrari Testarossa, I do not expect the AI to suddenly over take me in a Geo Metro. If it does, I'm taking the game out, putting it in its box, getting rid of it and telling all my friends how terrible the game is.
