Bone-Dry Dunes

Bone-Dry Dunes is the second race track in the Special Cup of Mario Kart 8. This course takes place on a desert and canyon place with shifting sand rivers and bones. Several ships ridden by Shy Guys and Toads sail through quicksand during the race, occasionally throwing out coins onto the track, similar to the train in N64 Rainbow Road.

Course layout
The course starts in an area with a small audience and tents. The road turns right before a sinuous section, and briefly splits into two paths (a ramp is placed between them). After a winding path, racers will find a wooden bridge which leads to a canyon filled with giant bones.

The road now is sandy, and begins with a right turn. The characters encounter a Bone Piranha Plant (which behaves just like a regular Piranha Plant, biting whoever is near). The following area has two distinct road options: the one to the left keeps the sand ground, and features another Bone Piranha Plant; the one to the right is an anti-gravity section where characters race along a wall made up of ribs, featuring some boosters. Both end with a gliding pad that sends them to a cave, whose entrance contains a giant skull and hands resembling Dry Bowser.

There are a higher and a lower path to choose. The higher path is a narrow and rather short wooden catwalk. The lower one is the soil of the cave. Inside it, some Dry Bones wander around on the road. A left turn marks the exit of the cave right before the finish line.

Shortcuts

 * Players can use a Mushroom to use the ramp between the two paths near the start of the track.
 * To the left of the last curve, there is an opening between a line of bones which players can cut across via Mushroom.

Trivia

 * Bone-Dry Dunes could have been a part of the sea, due to boats, lighthouses and starfish trapped in the stone part of the road.
 * The pots have enemies, scenery, and coins from Super Mario Bros.
 * This is one of the two new courses where the anti-gravity isn't compulsory, the other being Toad Harbor.
 * The yellow fabric has the Angry Sun enemy on it, which also references the Angry Sun reference from Mario Kart 7.
 * The Staff Ghost for this course is Morton, as a possible throwback to him being the boss of several desert worlds.