I want want to animate a map with the red line tracer hitting the destinations - we've all seen it. I assume I would do this also using keyframes and simply take a screenshot of the map from Google Images but can I do a basic animation like this in FCP alone or can it not be done without Motion?

It can be done easily both in After Effects and Motion, there are tons of tutorials on the web.

Just do a Google for "animating a map in fcp motion".

YouTube - Motion Tutorial - Animating a Map (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9fZV1QwUR4)

Heres a tutorial if you need it.