Thief Car AI for 3D Game

Basically, at present I am trying to create a simulator of this 80s game:

Chase HQ2 - Full gameplay

I was just working on a straight track or road gameplay so no left or right turn in the gameplay. For gameplay, I have coded for player car movement and random traffic generation within generated roads.

Now its's time to start working for Theif Car AI but where to start regarding this that I can't able to understand. So if you are able to provide me some guidance then it will be a great help for me :)

I don't expect any type of coding help but just a few suggestions in words so I can conclude something start coding into this.

Let me clear one more time, my roads remain straight always, there is no turn will get within the gameplay environment because at present I don't want to make something complex for me.