Why it's built this way
Arcade racers reward the last-millisecond brake and the perfect drift. This one adds the thing real racing is actually about: pace management. Your tires have a temperature and a life. Pushing (extra power) heats them fast; hot tires slide wide and wear out; worn tires never get their grip back. Running in another car’s slipstream gives you a speed boost and cools the tires, and the track is narrow enough that a car ahead can genuinely block.
The field has personalities. The chargers push from the first corner and lead early; the patient ones sit in the tow and wait. In a Sprint leading early is usually enough. Over ten laps the tires decide: whoever overcooked them drifts back, a worn car can’t hold a defensive line, and the driver who kept the rubber in its window arrives at the finish with the grip to pass. Pushing too little is a way to lose too.
The slow way. Stay in the tow, keep the temperature in the green, hold the inside line when someone lines you up, and watch the timing tower: the bar beside each name is that car’s tire life, the car directly ahead is marked, and a flag tells you when it is running on worn rubber. That is the moment you saved your tires for; a worn car slides wide in corners and can no longer hold a line.
The fast way. Hold push on every straight, brake late, and build a gap while the tires are fresh. It works if you can manage a car that slides more every lap.
Rivals come in two paces. Rookies lap about four seconds slower than the pros; start there, and use Practice to learn where the braking chevrons are. The fence at the edge of the run-off is the limit of the world: you slide along it, and you can always steer away from it.