Lot of questions here, some probably stupid. I'm trying to wrap my head around what old racing games like Pole Position, Outrun, Hang On, etc. work at a high level, and how it would work in cocos2d.
Road movement: it seems like some old games just move the road lines. So it appears to be a static background layer, and an animation layer of road lines (or lines + the road itself). The lines' animation speed is determined by the car's speed. But I'm not clear how this is handled when there is a turn in the road. Is the animation just replaced with a new road turning animation?
Background objects: Signs, trees, etc. I'm guessing these are just repeated and scaled based on the speed to give the impression that you're moving forward, but how are they managed and added to the layer?
Level structure: ow is level structure and length handled? For example, I have a simple track with four turns. At maximum speed without error, the player should run into the first turn after 10 seconds, at this point they should see buildings, etc. Is all of this pre-loaded, or added dynamically? My guess is that this is somehow handled by tying an in-game time to the speed.
Sorry if my questions aren't clear. Maybe this is a bit ambitious for a first game. :)