Non-winning racers don't stop at a random point anywhere on the track — they're deliberately kept to somewhere between 55% and 90% of the full distance. That narrow range is what keeps every race feeling competitive right up to the end: if a racer could randomly stall out at, say, 10% of the way across, some races would look over almost immediately instead of building suspense toward the finish line. Keeping every non-winner within striking distance is a deliberate animation choice, not a byproduct of the randomness itself.
Asphalt, dirt, and sand look genuinely different — different background colors and textures — but none of them affect how fast anyone actually moves. Unlike a racing video game where terrain might slow a vehicle down, the surface options here are purely visual variety with zero effect on the outcome, so picking dirt over asphalt is entirely about the look you want, never a disadvantage for whoever's racing on it.
The winner is chosen randomly before the race starts, then the animation is built so that racer's token reaches the finish line by the time your chosen duration ends, while the others finish just short of it.
Tap the Settings button above the track. From there you can paste in racer names, switch between horizontal and vertical, change the track surface, and set the race duration.
No — car colors are assigned randomly each race, so you don't have to think about it. Just add names and go.
No — only the winner is meaningful. The other racers move at randomized speeds and stopping points purely for visual variety and suspense, not to determine an actual ranking.