"Embodies what a racing game should be."
So a racing game should be designed about rubberband gameplay that rewards people who are losing and penalizes players the better they do?
For a kart racer, there are many other games to choose from that are better, but for the most recent, Modnation Racers is significantly better than Mario Kart. Less popular, but significantly better for sure. Modnation Racers has a terrible visual style, but as a kart racer, it uses the non randomized power up style that other games have in the past. Having the power ups viewable on the battlefield and the player to run over the one that they want to use, holding onto that power up and then picking up a second and a third to increase its functionality. Additionally, drifting, drafting, and performing tricks mid air earn you boost percentage which can be stored and used to boost or bring up a shield for a period of time, so allows you to put more distance between the players behind you(or catch up,) or save it and use it for defense.
Diddy Kong Racing is the first one I can think of that allowed you to get specific power ups than picking up a second and third. Chocobo Racing used the same feature and allowed other racers to grab them from behind. Modnation Racers added onto it with the boost gauge.
The balancing issues of the Mario Kart games are what will always keep them as some of the worst racing games in my opinion. Maybe as a good party racer with friends only yes, but in terms of the best racer, no.
