Objectively speaking Mario Kart 8/Deluxe (I don’t see how one could have a large difference of opinion about those, but I’m not going to talk about that) is the best, but for very personal reasons I vote Mario Kart 64, and I also always include Mario Kart 64 in my top 10 of the end-of-the-year Top 50 thread on here. It was the time when my family was happiest and all together, and we played 64 a lot. It would be the only game where I’d count nostalgia as the deciding factor on why I still regard it so highly.
But there’s still some merit to choosing it over newer games. MK64 is balanced a bit more towards skill and less on luck, it features less unfair items and tracks don’t feature as many sudden hazards. The Blue Shell for example travels across the ground instead of through the air and can therefore be blocked by walls. It also has a chance to also hit other players which softens the blow for the player in the lead. The tracks have many shortcuts either intended by Nintendo or not (I doubt that the wall jumping in Wario Stadium was intended) that require precise driving to pull off, but if taken really save a lot of time. Lastly, it also still has the best Battle Mode.
MK64>MK8>MKWii>MK7>SMK>MKDS>MKDD>MKSC
