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, exclusive to 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. Both courses feature red, yellow and blue cars, with "POW" on their license plates, as well as Bomb-cars.

Cars with the appearance of a three-wheeled, Mushroom-shaped pickup truck also appear on the main streets of these courses. Although they slow drivers down when bumped into, they do not make them spin out, instead releasing a Mushroom that will pop out and land on the road. This makes the Mushroom-shaped car one of the few obstacles in the game that can help the player in some way. These cars do not appear in Time Trial mode, likely to prevent players from obtaining extra Mushrooms. The sound the Mushroom car makes when bumped is the same sound that is played when a power-up item comes out of a ? Block in most Mario games.

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 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. 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."

Additionally, red convertibles driven by Miis appear in Coconut Mall. These behave differently from other cars in the series, driving back and forth across the width of the track.

Mario Kart 7
Cars also appear in Mario Kart 7 on Wuhu Loop, exclusively colored blue. 's red convertibles also return, and have the same behavior.

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.

's red convertibles return once again, and are now occupied by Shy Guys. They behave differently than in prior titles. Originally, they could no longer move, being parked on the sides of the track while facing drivers diagonally. Rather than causing racers to spin out, they merely acted as walls. This was changed in the 2.1.0 update. In all modes other than Time Trials, the Shy Guys will drive back and forth. Occasionally, they will do donuts, hurting racers that touch them. Cars also appear on, though they are parked and simply behave like walls and do not spin out racers who drive into them. In laps one and two of the aforementioned course, they are found at the end before the final turn, and in the final lap, they can be found parked before the tunnel at the final turn. Parked cars also appear in.

Mario Kart Tour
In Mario Kart Tour, stationary cars appear in DS Shroom Ridge R/T, New York Minute 3R/T, Berlin Byways 2 and its variants, Sydney Sprint T, Bangkok Rush and its variants, and Bangkok Rush 2 and its variants. 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 also return in the game. Their behavior is similar to those of other courses in previous Mario Kart games drive along Berlin Byways 3, GCN Mushroom Bridge, and DS Shroom Ridge, which also feature moving Item Boxes and coins. In this game, instead of spinning racers out, moving cars simply slow them down as a wall would; they can be taken out by hitting them with a Super Horn or a Super Bell, or by driving into them while under the effects of a Frenzy, Super Star, Mega Mushroom, or Bullet Bill, consequently giving "Car" bonus points. The moving cars introduced in Berlin Byways 3 receive a new model that resembles a real-world subcompact car from the 1980s, specifically the fourth generation. Red convertibles make a return in Wii Coconut Mall, which are occupied by Shy Guys like in the course's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe rendition, and in the regular variant, they move back and forth across the track like in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7, while in the R variant, they are bigger and completely stationary, similarly to version 2.0.0 of 8 Deluxe, though they now lie parallel to the course's borders rather than diagonally, and invisible boundaries redirect drivers away from them when approached.

The Mushroom cars from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! return in the remake of GCN Mushroom Bridge. They also appear in the course's R and T variants. They act much like in their debut game, releasing a Mushroom when bumped into or hit with an item such as a Banana, any type of shell, or a Bob-omb. They can additionally be tossed into the air by hitting them with a Super Horn or Super Bell, or by ramming into them while under the effects of a Frenzy, Mega Mushroom, Bullet Bill, or a Super Star. Interacting with a Mushroom-shaped car in any way grants the player bonus points, with the action being displayed as "Car".