While Nintendo Switch 2 launch title, it will live and die by the quality of its tracks, just like every previous installment of the iconic kart-racing series. Luckily, Mario Kart World has plenty of incredible tracks, and with the excitement of Knockout Tour carrying its online modes, it's likely to stick around for many years just like its predecessor, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Mario Kart World has 30 distinct courses, two of which have alternate routes depending on which Grand Prix you're racing. All the tracks end up with different layouts, though, since the rolling starts between races in online matches often send you from previous courses, changing where you start. Some of the best Mario Kart World below were inherited from previous games in the series, a Mario Kart tradition, but their redesigns are all significant. Each course below was selected based on its design, entertainment value, and how competitive (or chaotic) its races are.

10 Wario Stadium

Redesigned & Revamped

Mario Kart World's Wario Stadium simplifies the layout of the Nintendo 64 original, but its redesign more than makes up for the stunted length. There are plenty of jumps, boost pads, and turns to drift around throughout, making Wario Stadium an incredibly fast course, one that often comes down to the wire in online races.

It is also an interesting twist on the original's theme. Wario Stadium in Mario Kart 64 feels like a huge arena where you race under the lights. That is carried over when you race there during nighttime in World, but seeing it in broad daylight helps realize the industrial, demolition derby atmosphere the new set dressing is really going for.

9 Airship Fortress

Home Of The Koopalings

A charming homage to a classic Super Mario Bros. trope, Airship Fortress takes the traditional fortresses of the Koopalings and turns it into a high-flying racetrack. It has appeared in previous Mario Kart games, but World is its home console debut, and it's the best iteration of it yet.

The course has plenty of tight turns and small corridors, which makes it tough to navigate with so many racers in Mario Kart World. Airship Fortress's newfound spectacle on the Switch 2 is also notable, with a flying section giving you a great overhead look of the whole track and the volcanic and desert environments below.

8 Cheep Cheep Falls

White Water Rafting

Cheep Cheep Falls is the best demonstration of a new Mario Kart World feature, where driving in water turns your kart's wheels into water skis. You drive up a road to the top of the falls, then turn into the water and ride the crashing waves down.

It's a slightly difficult course, as the water handles a bit differently than the solid road, and there are rapids on each side of the water sections that will slow you down if you take a turn poorly. It also helps that Cheep Cheep Beach is visually striking, with autumn leaves filling the zen scenery.

7 Koopa Troopa Beach

Pure Chaos

Koopa Troopa Beach is Mario Kart World's Baby Park equivalent, which will make it divisive, but for my money, it's one of the more entertaining tracks. It's exceptionally short, and you do five laps in a regular VS Race.

All five of those laps are utter chaos, especially with World's new 24-player lobbies. A few laps in, the entire track is filled with racers and the items they're chucking. It doesn't make Koopa Troopa Beach especially competitive, but it's the best example of the Mario Kart's inherent silliness, so it's always entertaining.

6 Dino Dino Jungle

"Hold On To Your Butts"

Dino Dino Jungle toes the line of being gimmicky, but it implements the titular creatures so well that it ends up being a standout track in Mario Kart World. Overtaking someone because you bumped them into the colossal foot of a dinosaur stomping across the track encapsulates the great circumstantial gameplay that Mario Kart has become famous for.

A particular highlight is one dinosaur whose osteoderms (the ridge along its spine) can be used as a grinding rail. You have to hop off the course and onto its tail, and you're deposited back onto the track from underneath.

5 DK Spaceport

A Wonderful Homage

The concept behind DK Spaceport is a stroke of brilliance – you're racing up a classic Donkey Kong level. In many ways, the entire Super Mario franchise owes its existence to the original Donkey Kong arcade game, which featured Jumpman, the first iteration of Mario. DK Spaceport is a wonderfully realized celebration of Mario Kart's distant heritage.

And it's also a very fun course. Throughout the entire race, you're harassed by a giant mechanical Donkey Kong, who sets off a string of comically elaborate traps that spew obstacles your way, including, of course, barrels. It also throws in plenty of rails to grind and walls to ride, making good use of Mario Kart World's new features.

4 Moo Moo Meadows

New Classic

Moo Moo Meadows is well on its way to becoming a Mario Kart staple, having appeared in three straight console titles: Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8 (and 8 Deluxe), and now Mario Kart World. The humble race around a ranch spawned a number of memes revolving around its now iconic cows, leading to the debut of the Cow character in Mario Kart World.

Like Koopa Troopa Beach, Moo Moo Meadows gets a lot of its fun from the simplicity, but dodging cows on the track and jumping off of the mounds created by burrowing Monty Moles adds the perfect amount of variation to each lap to make it competitive. While the track is very straightforward, there are plenty of places to cut through the grass with the help of a mushroom, making it a great course to steal positions at opportune times.

3 Mario Circuit

Competitive Original

Mario Circuit is the least flashy course to make this list, but it more than deserves its high placement for being a pure distillation of what makes Mario Kart great. Mario Kart World's Mario Circuit is a combination of three Mario Circuit iterations that appeared in Super Mario Kart, the series' first entry on the Super Nintendo. There are no elevation changes and the most prominent scenery is the red, yellow, green, and blue blocks that line each side of the track.

Mario Circuit puts the series' all-important drift mechanics through their paces – you can drift boost through almost the entire course, and it makes for a cutthroat, high-speed race. Various iterations of Mario Circuit have appeared in many of the series' entries, and they're always fun because it strips Mario Kart down to its base elements for a tight competition.

2 Great ? Block Ruins

There's Gotta Be Coins Inside

Great ? Block Ruins really shines because of its level design. Its concept is clever, having racers zip through giant versions of Super Mario's iconic ? Blocks, and it's made only more special by floating high in the air, surrounded by clouds.

The course itself is very fun, perhaps most so when it comes as the last leg of the Cloud Rally. Just after the checkpoint in Knockout Tour that brings it down to four players, you're launched up a waterfall that originates in the Great ? Block Ruins, and given a single lap to determine who the final winner will be.

1 Rainbow Road

An Icon

Rainbow Road is arguably among the best tracks in every single Mario Kart game, but World's iteration is truly spectacular. Just like in every previous Mario Kart, Rainbow Road is the last track you unlock, and takes the kart-racing, item-slinging action into space.

It's a lengthy and tricky course, having no rails for the majority of its topsy-turvy track. Rainbow Road is always the greatest spectacle of any Mario Kart, and the Nintendo Switch 2's HDR really makes the technicolor track pop. The climax of finally seeing the new Rainbow Road is among the most beloved traditions in the series, and Mario Kart World doesn't disappoint with an incredible new version of the classic course, the best in the game.