SNES Rainbow Road

Rainbow Road made its debut on Super Mario Kart and is a very unique track: this is the only track in the game that is not numbered compared to the others, thus, there is only one Rainbow Road in the whole game. Despite being the final track of the game, it is relatively short compared to other tracks in the game and it is also the shortest Rainbow Road to date. Compared to the other tracks in the Special Cup in Super Mario Kart, it is also the only one with normal traction. This Rainbow Road reappeared in Mario Kart: Super Circuit alongside all the Super Mario Kart tracks and it was shortened even more, some paths got narrower considerably increasing the risk of falling. Rainbow Road makes its third appearance as the last course of the Lightning Cup in Mario Kart 7, being the first Rainbow Road to reappear as a retro track in another Mario Kart (not including when it, along with all other SNES tracks, appeared in Mario Kart Super Circuit). This track and N64 Luigi Raceway are the only two courses in Mario Kart 7 that do not make use of the gliding or underwater features. Unlike the last appearance or any other Rainbow Road course, this track is short, and is one of the shortest tracks in the game. Despite this, there are three laps instead of five.

Super Mario Kart composer Soyo Oka considers this course's theme one of her favorite compositions.

The music is later a dark remix for the music of Bowser's Galaxy Reactor from Super Mario Galaxy.

Course layout
To begin with, Rainbow Road lacks rails entirely and contains 90-degree turns. Rainbow-colored tiles cover the track's surface, and the yellow tiles conceal Coins and jumping humps. This course features Star Thwomps which can, unlike regular Thwomps, wipe out a racer by touch as well as by crushing, unless the racer activates a Star or a Boo, but they cannot be defeated by a Boo. The track begins with racers taking a turn to the right, there they may find ? Panels to gather items and there are some jumping humps that might represent a hindrance as there is a quartet of Star Thwomps ahead with a very tight space between them for racers to pass but racers can also pass on the sides of the Thwomps; after this, racers turn to the right again where they could get some coins here, followed by another turn to the right, there is once again a path with jumping humps with an incoming turn that might cause racers to fall if they are not careful, after this turn, the track gets narrower and follows a long path where more coins and Thwomps are found along the way with another turn awaiting the player, it is here where the track gets even more narrower increasing the risk of falling, before the final turn, the track bifurcates into two roads, the left side contains coins while the right side has 2 ? panels, both have a pair of Thwomps near the part these roads merge, alternatively, there is a jumping hump in the middle gap, if any racers use a Mushroom while they're heading it, they can jump over the gap near for a significant shortcut. After the final turn, before the finish line, there is another quartet of Thwomps, but this time there is no space between them to pass, only the side or when the Thwomps are rising, after this, the track starts over again. In Mario Kart: Super Circuit, the track is virtually the same, just a bit smaller and and narrower, Star Thwomps got removed, which compensate the size of the track and stabilizes the difficulty, the background is a bit different, it is the same to that of this game's original Rainbow Road with the moon, many stars and a large plain with a river in the bottom, the only feature absent from the background is the Paper Mario Bowser's Castle floating in the sky.

In Mario Kart 7, Rainbow Road underwent a great redesign while keeping the original layout. Unlike Mario Kart Super Circuit, Star Thwomps make a return in the course. The Thwomps are bigger (which actually reduces their number in the track) and now hit the track forming undulations on it, off of which the player can do tricks. Also, metallic grinding noises can be heard when the Thwomps are driven under. Ramps are also added throughout the course, taking the place of the yellow bumps that appeared in Super Mario Kart. Using the ramp in between the junction track is easy, the player has to use the mushroom on the ramp and hop to perform a trick to get a boost across the gap. If the player is in first-person view, the player can see the stars in the background through the breaks in the pixels.

Trivia

 * SNES Rainbow Road has appeared in three Mario Kart games, more than any other Rainbow Road in the series.
 * SNES Rainbow Road is the only course in Mario Kart 7 not to have a boost pad or a boost ramp, and one of four courses not to have a glider pad, or a glider ramp; the others being N64 Luigi Raceway, GCN Daisy Cruiser, and Rosalina's Ice World.