Replying to #3
Telling them to overtake doesnt completly over ride their drive path, i find doing it in close quaters on straights works, or just encourages them to over take...not actually there and then over take.
The hot's are unstable but are best at getting to first fast, why I gave mine an formula gran turismo on a technical track (it's a city track), it'd spin out on the same 3 turns so first or not, I'd have to tell it to ease up before it'd spin it's self out because it'd take the turn too fast...
Yes, constantly, I'd have to tell it to pace down even in first place and 10 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack because of how unstable it is, also a way over powered car does help, I think I spent more than 50,000 on my ford (yes, did the same event) just to get him to floor thje compitition...
I have 2 hot heads, 2 balanced, and 2 cold guys (the hot and cold being all the way to the max), for endurance races where many can be used...
Use the hots to take the lead, the balanced to keep it there, and let your cold guys endure, rinse and repeat, the hots tend to last the least amount of time because they go bezerk, the colds last longer but take their sweet time...though with the car I keep giving them (mazda 787b stealth edition ftw) they end up going a full circle about 20 times in a 9 hour race XD
Also patience helps, especially with low ai as an over powered car for them is hard to control...also note to always use the max grade tires you can, in an event that allowed racing soft, I used midium, my ai couldnt hack it with those tires >_>
Switched to soft=fixed the problem, tires and certain cars helps, why in the "like the wind" event on the oval track (indy or daytona I forget), they would break far too much in turns, even with the dodge viper acr maxed out (980hp) with the right tires...but the ford gt40 (the old version you win from a race) at 500hp actually out paced the rest...seems they needed a car they can control as well.