I recommend waiting until your 2nd play-through to try for this achievement, especially If you are going for the Million Dollar Grandad achievement (fully upgrading your cart). The Village is pretty easy to get all 3 golds, but as you progress the AI carts upgrade making it tougher to win races. on the first play-through don't worry if you get 1st, just keep in mind that you must accumulate enough points in the 3 races to place in the top 3 to advance to the next stage. if you get 7th or 8th I recommend restarting to try to place higher.
First go through I would upgrade your weapons first as it is fairly cheap and beneficial to taking out enemies easier, but then I recommend saving your money to upgrade the Engine and Gear Box as much as possible.
After completing the first play-through, start a new story and select the same character. Your upgrades are still attached to your cart, but the AI starts from scratch giving you a clear advantage from the get go. The 2nd play-through was a breeze to get first on every track, whilst still continuing to upgrade your cart. If you do manage to not get first on a map, as the AI can be quite pesky at times and bombard you with a bunch of stuff, make sure to try the map again once its finished, because if you continue you will have to restart the entire story to complete this achievement.
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