Here's what I could find in a couple minutes:

https://github.com/openai/universe-starter-agent

OpenAI's example universe agent. Remember that while their goal is an agent that works in any and all environments (read: games), you could certainly optimize yours just for MarioKart.

Thanks, looks promising! Can't wait to try it! :)

Reinforcement Learning. Here's a good intro: http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/d.silver/web/Teaching.html

Perfect, thank you!!! You made my day. :-D

...later found this nice explanation of RL concepts if it helps someone: https://www.nervanasys.com/demystifying-deep-reinforcement-l...