Selecting characters

I know there are probably a million tutorials for what I’m looking for but I can’t seem to find them!

What I’m trying to do is design a game that you can choose between several characters, each with different graphics/settings. I know how to design the characters and change the setting I was just wondering how the player could select 1 character and then the computer randomly selects 3 other different characters to race against. The game is an running game (thank you to Dr. Warm for putting a tutorial on here, that was most helpful).

Advice or pointing me in the right direction will be most helpful.

Thankyou in advance.

*/edit Have been thinking about this and I was wondering if its just a case of designing several different mixes with each character in (if I have 12 different runners and only want 4 running at a time pre-draw every possible combination of characters and just have a go to and play function for each frame depending on who the player chooses.

This would involve a fair bit of work so if there is an easier way please let me know!*