Since the dawn of time — or 1992, I suppose — Mario Kart has been the quintessential kart racer. Whether we’re talking a college dorm party or a family game night, when someone grabs a set of Joy-Cons (or Wii remote, or GameCube controller) and asks for a race, no one’s saying no. Though, with how great some of 2025’s other kart racers have been, now that race might not be on a Mario Kart track.
After more than a decade of Mario Kart 8 being the go-to kart racer, Nintendo published a new entry in 2025: Mario Kart World. Though its open world may be a bit underbaked, the minute-to-minute racing is still top-notch, and World’s new Knockout Tour mode is perhaps the genre’s best innovation yet. With 24 racers vying for the top spot, the bottom four are systematically eliminated at various checkpoints throughout a race until only four remain.
Knockout Tour is such a simple idea that it’s remarkable it hasn’t been done in a Mario Kart before. It delivers the rush you get from scrambling toward the finish line multiple times over the course of a single race. It’s become my go-to mode over the traditional Grand Prix races.
Even beyond Mario Kart World, the kart racing genre thrived this year. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds might be the best non-Mario Kart kart racer of this console generation. Living up to Sonic’s “Gotta go fast” catchphrase, its races blur on by. No one is ever out of contention when you can consistently boost to gain tremendous speed, quickly zooming from behind the pack to leading it.
CrossWorlds offers a level of customization not found in Mario Kart World, and lends itself well to those who want to tinker with kart parts to design the perfect vehicle, then paint it any which way they want. Despite playing through dozens of races since its Nintendo Switch 2 launch earlier this month, I’m still finding ways to experiment with different part combos and various racers. (Silver the Hedgehog was my early main, but Sonic the Werehog is just too ridiculous not to use.)
And 2025 also gave us Garfield Kart 2 – All You Can Drift. It may not have made the same impact as Mario Kart World or reached the same highs as Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, but it’s still a worthwhile kart racer buoyed by some truly excellent tracks. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Garfield Kart 2 imitates the best of the genre on its way toward a comforting experience.
But the real winner of 2025’s kart racers is Kirby Air Riders, which landed in the top 10 of Polygon’s best games of 2025. The remake of/sequel to the GameCube cult classic isn’t just a kart racer, it’s a vehicular action game. You’re racing to cross the finish line first, of course, but you’re also gobbling up enemies to shoot stars at your fellow racers, rapidly spinning to knock your opponents off balance, and using various copy abilities to wreck their vehicles, like a slashing sword, plasma laser, and missiles.
Kirby Air Riders might be the most chaotic game of 2025, and that chaos lends itself to short-form gameplay that’s difficult to walk away from. It also offers a diversity of modes, all of which are engaging in their own right. While most kart racers rely on Grand Prix modes (think a series of four three-lap races), Kirby Air Riders has a bounty of minigames, the surprisingly excellent Top Ride (where you race around a short course from a fixed top-down perspective), and City Trial. That final mode is Kirby Air Riders’ signature; it sets several racers speeding around a map collecting upgrades for a set amount of time before taking part in a minigame. City Trial is frenzied chaos, and it’s a delight.
With roughly nine out of every ten Switch 2 owners having picked up a copy of Mario Kart World, it’ll likely end up being a game-night staple. But 2025 has seen several contenders vying for its kart racing throne, and don’t be surprised if, over time, Kirby Air Riders finds itself with the crown as the go-to kart racer. The game is about swallowing up competition, after all.
