Classic course

A Retro Course is a past Mario Kart game's Nitro Course, not counting the Extra Courses from Mario Kart: Super Circuit. They appear in Mario Kart DS and all subsequent Mario Kart games. They come in the Shell Cup, Banana Cup, Leaf Cup, and Lightning Cup.

A Mario Kart course has rarely returned as a Retro Course more than once with a few exceptions. Until Mario Kart 8, Retro Courses were generally identical to their original counterparts, receiving only graphical updates. For example, in SNES and GBA courses, the space is larger and the blocks are taller, and in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7, courses appear almost identical to the originals, the only differences being the added underwater and gliding sections in the latter game, while in Mario Kart DS, some Retro Courses appear to be scaled down in graphics due to system limitations of the Nintendo DS.

Starting from Mario Kart 8, most Retro Courses are completely redesigned for HD graphics. They usually include new mechanics, new details for the race tracks, and completely new backgrounds, and also support the anti-gravity, underwater, and gliding mechanics. Also new to Mario Kart 8, most Retro Courses have newly arranged or remastered music, whereas Retro Courses in older Mario Kart games retain their original music (although there are exceptions). Mario Kart Tour, however, returns to the use of original music and general appearance.

Table of Retro Courses
Courses highlighted in red have yet to appear as Retro Courses in a later Mario Kart installment. A hyphen (-) indicates that the course appears as a Nitro Course in its respective game and therefore can not appear as a Retro Course in it or in a previous installment.