I finished all challenges and hit the highest possible bird rating so ill give my 2 cents.

The AI is questionable and its usually best to either be behind or in front of the pack for the first 50% of the race depending on your loadout and stats. Only like half of the racers will go for the chests, which leads to moments in which you often don't get the item you plan for. Generally speaking the later in the list the item is the better it is, this is why is absolutely viable to be a bit behind at the start.

At the same time almost all npcs will screw up the jump over harmful tiles, and once again half the racers will go out of their way to hit bad tiles even if they could be avoided by going around them.

Remember the ranking that determines in which race you join is based on your potential stats rather then your current stats. This means food does not increase your rank, feeding lv 1 feed only has the potential to simply drag yourself down past Pedigree 5-6 unless your ok with not winning.

Also remember there is constant lag and the race is basically on rails, the visuals of your bird is about half a sec behind where you really are, so if you ever wondered "i totally hit that flying chest" ... no your already half a sec further in the track.

Its mostly not fun, skip unless your a sucker for punishment or achievement farmer.