Trophy Race

A Trophy Race (also called a Trophy Challenge) is a challenge in Diddy Kong Racing and its remake, Diddy Kong Racing DS. In a Trophy Race, the player(s) must complete a series of four races. Players earn points according to their finishing position in each race. The racer with the highest number of points after all races have been completed wins a trophy: bronze for third place, silver for second, and gold for first. Winning gold in most or all of the Trophy Races is required to complete Adventure Mode. In the Nintendo 64 version, there are 5 trophies in total.

Diddy Kong Racing
After completing a world's Silver Coin Challenge, then winning the subsequent race against the world's boss, the Trophy Race becomes available. (Although the message when trying to enter it before this claims that "You must complete all the tasks from this world.", the Challenge Levels are not required)

Each Trophy Race involves racing through each of the four main racetracks in each world in sequence, in the same fashion as Grand Prix mode from the Mario Kart series, collecting points as follows:
 * 1st place: 9 points
 * 2nd place: 7 points
 * 3rd place: 5 points
 * 4th place: 3 points
 * 5th place: 1 point
 * 6-8th place: 0 points

To collect the winner's trophy - a gold statue of Wizpig - the player needs only to accumulate more points than any other racer over the four races. The second-place trophy is a silver statue of Taj the Genie, while the third-place is a bronze statue of T.T.. The four races must be completed in one continuous playthrough - the player cannot save and quit mid-cup, nor can they restart an individual race within the Trophy Challenge.

In order to access the fifth world, Future Fun Land, the player must successfully win gold in the Trophy Races for Dino Domain, Snowflake Mountain, Sherbet Island and Dragon Forest. The Trophy Race for Future Fun Land is accessible after completing Wizpig Strikes Back, but is optional - i.e., has no gameplay consequences for non-completion.

Once unlocked, Trophy Races can also be played outside of Adventure Mode, in Tracks Mode. Trophy Races can also be played in two-player Adventure Mode (accessed using the cheat code JOINTVENTURE), but with only four CPU characters.

Trophies
The bronze T.T. trophy has some green accents with bronze dots on the base, the silver Taj trophy has red accents with a green turban on his head and silver stars on the base, and the golden Wizpig trophy has blue accents with emeralds studded on the base.

Diddy Kong Racing DS
In Diddy Kong Racing DS, each Trophy varies in appearance to the area it's associated to. Unlike in the original game, the fifth and final Trophy Race in Adventure Mode must be completed before Wizpig can be challenged in Future Fun Land, this is the only time a trophy race must be completed before the boss is defeated.

Unlike the original game, a trophy race cannot be replayed in adventure mode once the gold trophy is obtained; instead, a congratulatory message is displayed. It is also not available in any single player mode, so it can only be replayed in multiplayer.

A Trophy Race of the four new tracks, set on Donkey Kong Island, is not present in Adventure Mode, but can be played outside of it. In multiplayer, points are assigned as follows:

Trophy Race icons
The Dino Domain Trophy depicts a single therapod dinosaur tooth.