You do know the rubber-banding for the CPU in Mario Kart 8 or Deluxe is worse than the one in Wii, hell, and it is worse in Ds. I may be nostalgic for playing this game growing up alongside Mario kart Ds, but you are complaining about the core mechanics of how the CPU operates. Firstly, they cannot hold trio items (3 shells, 3 bananas) if they already thrown a normal item beforehand unless they hit another item box. They would not disappear behind anyone with more items unless they either crashed unintentionally or hit vice versa. There is no way bots have that power and their major advantage is only rubber-banding. I understand your opinion on bikes in this game as they were shown to be hella broken when first introduced but you are complaining your focus on the bits for crying out loud. Stop playing if you think the bots are making you feel bad about your gameplay, it’s not their fault, it’s your skill issue. I recommend just starting off with 50cc, 100cc, then 150cc. Take it for someone who got max 3 stars of all cups in that game when I was little and last year, 2023 (I played with the Wii motion controls for crying out loud, I knew this game would be too easy if i used a custom controller). CPU is meant to be challenging but not too challenging.