Mario kart 8 is probably my favourite.
I think for the next game they should keep the racing controls and mechanics pretty much the same. They should focus more on letting players customize there racing experience. So like smash give the option to turn off certain items. I think a mission mode like Mario kart ds or story mode like ctr would be good thing to add to improve single player.

Well i was at work earlier so I could not put up what I though.

I will use your post to leverage of it too. Agree about more levels.

I personally think the next game will probably be called Mario Kart Ultimate, in the same vein as SSB Ultimate. That is why I agree with you about more cups. I think they will add them and more players.

Now for me it is a hard decision. I like the way Mario Kart 8 is balanced, mainly because it allows a wider audience to play with.

With Double Dash i loved the pace of the game, probably my favourite in terms of speed and snaking. The issue here was if you were too good you could lap people too easily. Now most will argue that's fine you are just that much better. But i did turn off a lot of people from Mario Kart playing against them on Wii in GCN mode.  So on the one hand I want the speed but at the same time I don't want to turn away people.  Perhaps there is a way to make the speed faster (maybe not as quick as Double Dash but keep the way Mario Kart 8 is? Not sure.

I also want to see a story mode as I mentioned in the CTR thread. That i liked in Diddy Kong and CTR. Perhaps be a bit more fun and casual about it in the same spirit as say cannonball run (or tour de france style). Where you race from one end of the mushroom kingdom to the other. Provide save points after each race so you can come back to it later. A long 20-30 track kind of trace that is essentially one big race. Now between each leg, maybe add the ability to tweak your kart based on weather and road terrain and conditions for the next section.

Double Dash, just slightly ahead of 8 and after a large gap Wii. Haven't played any handheld Kart (SC, DS and 7), so dunno how good they are. SMK was great, but too similar to F-Zero for me, and I find MK64 the worst of the bunch by leaps and bounds with really bland tracks and unimaginative items.

Favorite, 8
Best in proportion to its time imo, Double Dash
Played the most, Wii

What new maps?  I thought it just had all the DLC.  Am I wrong?

Best to worst
The great Mario Karts:
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Kart 7
Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart 8
Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart

The bad ones:
Mario Kart Double Cube
Mario Kart Super Circuit

Mario Kart Wii is the boundary where the modern feeling series began. I put Mario Kart 8 down because although it is basically Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with fewer tracks, racers, and modes, it lacks a strong multiplayer mode compared to Mario Kart 7 due to the Wii U hardware - it was ultimately the Mario Kart game I played by far the least outside of Cubed Mario Kart and Super Circuit - but I put those two much lower because they were below par for the series, suffering from far bigger issues and flaws. But the big issue with Mario Kart 8 is that no one wanted to play it because anyone who used the Gamepad seemed to have an advantage over the other players - also, Mario Kart 7 allowed for more players. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe gives everyone a screen, and many more players than the old 8.

MK8 Dx is a hard package to beat...but I think from memory I had the most enjoyable time with mk ds for some reason...the Wii version I quite got into as well at the time.

Double Dash by far is my favorite one. There's so much great about it.
When you got hit by any shell, banana, car, ramming into another kart, zooming through another kart with a mushroom, you really felt the weight of it. There's was this feeling of getting hit that felt so much better than getting hit in any other cart game. The drifting felt the best there for me as well. The battle modes were amazing and the two item system was great. The fact that some of MK8Deluxe's best improvements were adopting the double item and the battle modes from Double Dash is just telling. (Either coin runner is new or I think from MKDS)
Most importantly, it was the partner system. Making mistakes, sabotaging each other, eventually getting that synergy, making up for each others flaws to become the best kart racer and battler was so incredibly fun.
Making a Double Dash 2 with similar physics and the quality of life improvements from the new games would be great.

DD > DS >= MK8 > MK64 >= Super Circuit > Wii
I didn't get to play the original or MK7

I honestly remember the Wii version having some tracks that were amazing. It's probably more nostalgia than anything but at the very least there's a few Wii tracks that should have been remastered for 8, especially because there's a couple of meh retro tracks. 

I also seem to remember the Wii game having a higher skill ceiling despite being more unbalanced. The clips of what people can do in Wii is insane.

weird post in wrong thread. :-|