I have a school project to build an AI for a 2D racing game in which it will compete with several other AIs (no collision). We are given a black and white bitmap image of the racing track, we are allowed to choose basic stats for our car (handling, acceleration, max speed and brakes) after we receive the map. The AI connects to the game's server and gives to it several times a second numbers for the current acceleration and steering. The language I chose is C++, by the way. The questions are: What is the best strategy or algorithm (since I want to try and win)? I currently have in mind some ideas found on the net and one or two of my own, but I would like before I start to code that my perspective is one of the best. What good books are there on that matter? What sites should I refer to?