Tour Athens Dash

Athens Dash is a race course in Mario Kart Tour. It is set in Athens, and first appeared in the Spring Tour, making it the first city course to debut in a tour that is not named after the city it is based on. The course is the fifth course set in a European city. The course visits various landmarks of the city it is based upon, specifically atop the, and the various ruins atop it, such as the Parthenon and the. Unlike most other city courses, Athens Dash largely keeps the city proper to the background, instead focusing on the ancient ruins the city is known for. Also unlike other real world city courses, which tend to reconstruct real world buildings faithfully, this course takes many liberties regarding its design, such as placing a gigantic statue of outside the Parthenon, made of ivory and gold and wielding a spear and shield, similarly to the long-disappeared statue of. Like Sydney Sprint and Singapore Speedway, the track largely does not condense landmarks down and instead situates the ones featured around where they are in real life, though akin to the former, it takes more liberties with the layout and what's included. The starting banner consists of two golden statues of holding vases of water.

There are currently three routes for this course named Athens Dash, Athens Dash 2, and Athens Dash 3. The first two routes debuted together while the third route debuted in the 2023 Anniversary Tour. The first route takes racers to the and Hadrian's Arch, while the second route takes racers off the Acropolis. The course's model contains a currently unreleased third route, taking racers to the and featuring a route that comes down upon the Theatre of Dionysus. It is the first city course in Mario Kart Tour to debut in 2023; additionally, the period of time between its introduction and the introduction of the previous city course is longer than any other city course, with twenty-one tours between Bangkok Rush's debut in the Bangkok Tour and Athens Dash's debut in the Spring Tour. Athens Dash is also the first city course to feature half-pipes and the second city course to lack any sponsor advertisements, the first being Singapore Speedway. Prior to the official reveal of Athens Dash, references to assets for this course such as pillars and doorways were left within the game's internal data, all of which were appended the course's internal abbreviation (mobat).

Athens Dash returns in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the first course of the Feather Cup in the Booster Course Pass.

Athens Dash
Racers start inside the Parthenon. Upon leaving the Parthenon, racers soon take a left turn before going down hill to approach some ruins. Racers can choose to jump off of a ramp and drive along the floor, or jump up on some arches and collect a few coins. After avoiding some ruins that create a fork in the road, racers drive up a ramp before landing on the. After curving along the seats, racers drive off a boost panel, and take two left turns to enter a cannon located beneath the Hadrian's Arch, taking them back up to the Acropolis via a tunnel. After exiting the tunnel and taking a left turn, racers make their way back to the Parthenon to reach the finish line.

This route also appears as Athens Dash R (reversed), Athens Dash T (with ramps), and Athens Dash R/T (reversed with ramps). In the R variant, a road connecting to the Theatre of Dionysus that is not present on the minimap is used.

Additionally, Athens Dash R/T starts in a different location compared to the other variants, and is one of five courses in Mario Kart Tour that do not start in the same place as the original, the others being 3DS Rock Rock Mountain T, 3DS Rainbow Road T, 3DS Rainbow Road R/T, and Singapore Speedway R/T. In this case, the starting line is instead located in the middle of the Gliding section by Hadrian's Arch.

Appearances
For this course's tour appearances, see List of Athens Dash tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour § Athens Dash.

Athens Dash 2
This route starts in the opposite direction of the other one. After leaving the Parthenon, racers take a left turn and approach the briefly before taking a glider ramp into a street resembling, driving down many sets of staircases as they approach a wide U-bend. After the U-bend, racers approach the, avoiding Thwomps. Racers then begin driving uphill, avoiding boulders that fall down the Acropolis. Here, there is a shortcut in a narrow tunnel that requires destroying a wooden cutout of a Goomba. Once up the Acropolis, players drive beneath the and the. After a brief straightaway, they approach the finish line.

This route also appears as Athens Dash 2R (reversed), Athens Dash 2T (with ramps), and Athens Dash 2R/T (reversed with ramps).

Appearances
For this course's tour appearances, see List of Athens Dash tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour § Athens Dash 2.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Athens Dash returns in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of Wave 5 of the Booster Course Pass DLC. It appears as the first course of the Feather Cup. It has received significant visual upgrades compared to its appearance in Mario Kart Tour. The cannon from the first route has been replaced with a normal Glide Ramp. As Athens Dash 3 had yet to be released when this course was added in the Booster Course Pass, Athens Dash is the one of the two Tour city courses alongside Sydney Sprint to be added to the pass before all three variants were released. The course features a second starting line (along the Athens Dash 3 route), making it the second course in the Mario Kart series to open a cup and use sections (after Wuhu Loop in Mario Kart 7) and the third course in the series to feature both laps and sections, the first two being and  (though unlike those tracks, the section replaces the second lap rather than the third). It is used to begin lap 2, while lap 3 starts in reverse along the Athens Dash 2 route. The beginning ramp was changed to a wooden one, leading to the raised pillar route being adjusted and the split path at the bottom being removed. Some pillars now fall akin to Dry Dry Ruins, and all the pillars are lengthened. The Thwomps have been removed.

Athens Dash is one of three courses from Mario Kart Tour to be present in the fifth wave, alongside and.

Internally, the course is referred to as "Cnsw_65", implying it may have originally been intended to be the first course of the Spiny Cup.

On the Nintendo Switch's newsfeed in North America, an article erroneously names this course as .

Unlike other city courses that do not use staff ghosts from their home nations, Athens Dash has a Spanish staff ghost, rather than an American or Japanese one.

Profiles

 * Mario Kart Tour Twitter:
 * Here's a sneak peek of what's to come in #MarioKartTour! Toad and Yoshi went ahead to check out the new tour location and sent a picture back. It looks like some races are about to heat up in a historic city with towering temples.
 * The Yoshi Tour is wrapping up in #MarioKartTour. Next up is the Spring Tour featuring the course Athens Dash course [sic], along with other European city courses!