Great great game, but AI OP

Ive been playing this for a few months now and have a hard time putting my phone down. The game is fun, immersive, has a great soundtrack and is fairly realistic as far as racing games go. It seems very pay-to-win but I havent played enough multiplayer to confirm this. My biggest complaint is the AI. The AIs seemingly have some kind of buff to give it an advantage over the player. Ive experienced this most when in the 15th (last) mastery race of the higher-class cars. In order to participate in the race your vehicle must be fully upgraded, including all pro kit upgrades, but once in a race Ive seen AIs pass me and disappear from view without any nitro boost, while Im at max speed +perfect nitro max speed. Without the ability to go any faster the AIs that should have the exact same vehicle and upgrades can pass you without using their upgrades to their fullest extent. Add their nitro speed onto that and once In order to win these races you must take every shortest/fastest path, never wreck (both of which are fair), get to first place within the first 1/4 of the race and never let the AIs pass unless you knock them down immediately. In most races a clear high-skill, high-upgrade AI (usually up to 3) will play near perfectly, and if you let them pass you (especially in the last 1/2 to 3/4 of a race) it becomes impossible to catch up to them, even if you manage to play near perfectly as well (in fact they almost always just pull farther ahead with nothing stopping them; at best you can keep a constant distance behind them). Then there are other cases where, despite their overpowered status, their pathfinding causes them to get a MASSIVE disadvantage to the player, almost garunteeing a 1st-3rd place win. This is most common in tracks with sharp turns or splits in the road. I first noticed it in Alps Reverse while playing in Challenge 10 of the Maserati GranTurismo Sports Mastery races when you get to the top of the mountain and reach the split bridges. Most of the AIs, including the high-skill/upgrade AIs will crash into the barrier that starts the split. I also noticed it a lot in the Area 51 tracks since the road is constantly splitting, although in this track it is much less common among the high-skill/upgrade AIs. Regarding sharp turns, Sky Drop (Tenerife variant) has an extremely sharp right turn (2nd to last turn before the "drop") that causes many of the AIs to crash into the wall or other wrecked AIs as they round the turn. You can get a large advantage if you stay close enough to the inside of the turn to avoid the carnage, and keep that advantage as long you keep far enough ahead of the high-skill/upgrade AIs once they pass the turn.

caucow98 about Asphalt 8: Airborne