Car (obstacle)

A car is an obstacle that frequently appears in the Mario Kart series. Cars appear on stages set on roads, such as Mushroom City, and will follow the road with the rest of the other traffic. The effect of hitting a Red Car has the same effect as hitting a Banana, causing the player to spin out. They cannot be destroyed or removed, but can be launched into the air by driving into them while using a Super Star, Bullet Bill, Chain Chomp, Super Horn or Mega Mushroom, or by throwing a Bowser Shell at them. Cars may also honk their horns if they hit an item or the player.

Mario Kart 64
Cars first appear in Mario Kart 64, where they only appear on the course Toad's Turnpike. The cars on this course are white and share the same engine sound as Toad's Kart.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Cars reappear in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, where they appear in two courses, Mushroom Bridge and Mushroom City. The game features normal red, yellow and blue cars, with "POW" on their license plates, as well as Bomb-cars and Mushroom Cars.

Mario Kart DS
Cars also appear in Mario Kart DS, in Shroom Ridge and the returning retro course. Both courses feature red, yellow and blue cars. However, in, the Mushroom Cars and Bomb-cars have now been removed.

In Mission 4-3, Mario must race against a red car to the finish line on Shroom Ridge. This car moves much faster than cars normally move.

Mario Kart Wii
Cars appear again in Mario Kart Wii, where they appear in Moonview Highway and Coconut Mall. The former course features blue, red and yellow cars, with "POW" on their number plates, and are nearly the same as the cars from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! However, if the player hits a car head on, the player will be squashed by the car in the same way as being run over by someone with a Mega Mushroom, and will have a lower speed and drive flat for a short while, and hitting the back or side of a car will cause the player to flip over. Bomb-cars also return, now under the name "Bob-omb Cars." In the latter course, moving cars appear at the parking lot near the finish line, with Miis driving them.

Mario Kart 7
Cars also appear in Mario Kart 7, on the Wuhu Loop and courses. On the former course, there are only blue cars.

Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Red and black cars appear on the retro tracks in Mario Kart 8 as well as  and  in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The boxy design of the cars resembles the typical styling of real-world cars from the 1980s and 1990s, specifically the. Yellow taxis with blue details and Green Shell Taxi branding also appear on both courses and function identically to the cars. The cars in Wii Coconut Mall are also larger and occupied by Shy Guys. Originally, they could no longer move, being parked on the sides of the track while facing drivers diagonally and they acted as walls. This was changed when Wave 2 of the Booster Course Pass was released, now moving back and forth and occasionally doing donuts, hurting racers that touch them.

Mario Kart Tour
In Mario Kart Tour, stationary cars appear in New York Minute 3R/T, Berlin Byways 2, its variants, Sydney Sprint T and Bangkok Rush. They act as obstacles that block the player's path, but they can be bounced on to perform a Jump Boost. They retain the model seen in cars from Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but appear in others colors such as white, blue, and green. A taxi variant can be found on all of the New York Minute courses as a wall. The taxi variant also appears as an obstacle in New York Minute 2T and New York Minute 4.

Moving cars return in Wii Coconut Mall, where they are occupied by Shy Guys like in the course's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe rendition. In the regular variant, the cars move back and forth across the track like in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7, though instead of flipping racers out, they simply slow them down as a wall would; they can be taken out by driving into them while invincible or under the effects of a Mega Mushroom, consequently giving "Car" points. In the R variant, the cars retain the properties seen in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, being bigger and completely stationary, though now they lie parallel to the course's borders rather than diagonally, and there are invisible boundaries that redirect drivers away from them when approached.