Cheating/rubber band AI i am not a fan

With games like mario kart and some of the need for speed games they have something called rubber band ai which means if you are doing well the opponents would get better perhaps via a speed boost or if you are doing badly they will slow down.

Now i know why they do that to keep the races close but i hate it i remember i was the last corner of a lap i crashed and was overtaken and it was not for the rubber band ai i would have probably had a decent lead. I would much prefer a more realistic take to try and simulate over players as rubber band feels cheap.

Cheating ai is even worse i have come across it a few times such as in some of the mortal kombat where the opponent can seem to counter all attacks.Worse i ever saw though was in a puzzle quest game not sure what one.

But i noticed that the opponent would always go for the 5 in a row or 4 in a row above everything but i remember several times it would go for a 3 in a row and gems would drop in from off screen and then chain into a 4 or a 5 in a row...blatant cheating.

All i ask is make the game fair if you are a lot better then the AI do not resort to cheap AI to make up the difference