I don't know guys. I do fairly good on all the kart games, especially Mario Kart. You just have to be exceptionally good at gaining ground so when widget x throws a power up that kills everyone you can just pass all the other people that also got took out. I even do pretty well with blue shells. The trick to those is to get in first and then have almost a full lap of distance between yourself and second place. It's difficult, but it can be done and imho that's what makes the "kids" kart racers fun for old timers like myself.
Blah Blah Blah.... computer players ...blah blah
Dude.... you don't play kart racers in single player mode. 100% Human players all the time or gtfo. I have no doubt that the games are rigged to balance out the gameplay, but it CAN be done in most games because I do it...... consistently. The summer Mario Kart 8 came out I never got below 3rd place online after I got my kart parts adequately upgraded.
Each to their own, I hate online gaming / stuff with lots of players.
Single player, or local multiplayer or GTFO for me.
Obviously as a result of this, most of the things I've studied are based on local play cases, if you're playing all human players of course the logic is different (that's where the focus becomes more on the power-up award system and triggering more track hazards for the leading players than rubber banding)
As I said tho, the logic behind these systems is more or less what ends up defining something as a kart racer in the first place, it's a big part of the code although even for other circuit racers you'll usually find the players infront of you drive more slowly until you've overtaken them, then match your speed.
One game I found that doesn't seem to rubber-band at all is the World of Outlaws game on the PS3, low-budget, but fun, although it does have a silly rule whereby if you cause a crash all the cars get lined back in in place order, regardless of how many times you've lapped them, so if you are doing badly you can exploit that to close the gaps :p
Also, back on the original subject. Yeah, don't buy Sonic Mania what that DRM, it's absolutely horrible stuff. So sad, a game that basically came about through modding etc. has that level of vile protection on it. That DRM is one reason I've stopped buying PC games. I guess Sega really can't help screwing something up, even when gifted the perfect game, there's some rot at Sega that must run to the core.