Are the other 7 racers real or computer? Can I race vs friend?

idk about racing whit friends maybe there a ways or next patch didnt tried to, but all 7 other you race against are real people

you sure I read somewhere that in race green = npx blue = person and every time I raced (5 times) it was my name blue 7 names in green.

yea i raced agaisnt someone behind me near the registration girls one days

I believe some are NPCs.. unless it's bots? :S
But anyhow, a friend and I queued up for the same map and we did actually get in the same race without any problems