Abstract: In this paper, the car-like robot kinematic model trajectory tracking and control problem is revisited by exploring an optimal analytical solution which guarantees the global exponential stability of the tracking error. The problem is formulated in the form of tracking error optimization in which the quadratic errors of the position, velocity, and acceleration are minimized subject to the rear-wheel car-like robot kinematic model. The input-output linearization technique is employed to transform the nonlinear problem into a linear formulation. By using the variational approach, the analytical solution is obtained, which is guaranteed to be globally exponentially stable and is also appropriate for real-time applications. The simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed mechanism in generating an optimal trajectory and control inputs by evaluating the proposed method in an eight-shape tracking scenario.