Are the contestants in "Level Race" real, or are they simulations?

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that even though tons of people (apparently) play this game, you never actually compete against any of them, and the leaderboard/level race are full of fake players. It's odd the way everybody else seems to score at a rate that's not quite out of your reach. And they always appear to be on at the same time as you, inching their score forward to keep you motivated. And I haven't seen a single "competitor" who has figured out that you can score double points for 15 minutes by watching an ad, so it's always easy to catch up if you miss a day or two - just watch more ads! Err, I mean, play a little longer! It's all geared to make you feel like you're the smartest player and just need to put in about 1/2 hour of (ad revenue generating) time each day to beat all these other chumps!

The names of the other players thru the whole game are 100% fake hence why there is no link to add a social media Acc.

I also had a friend playing it with roughly the same points and we couldn’t see each other listed (I reckon each person gets their own game).

You playing on your own. There is no end game.