How do you get good a MK8? I thought I was doing well (not getting hit or falling off stuff) to then only finish 8th
The roller wheels, beetle kart, and super glider are statistically the best parts.
The lighter the character, the better the overall stats are statistically. Particularly mini turbo, acceleration, off-road speed, drift, and handling which are all far more important than top speed.
Metal Mario is an odd one out as he has the best stat total across all stats out of all the characters, although he isn't top for the stats that matter and it's mostly due to his extreme weight not following the general character stats algorithm. Waluigi is the best middle weight character if you need more top speed (you don't).
Each 0.5 increase in speed give you 0.5 less acceleration and 0.5 less turbo, so the character with the lowest speed has the highest sum of speed related stats (speed, acceleration, turbo).
Other than that:
- Always focus on getting the 10 coins ASAP as each one gives you a 1% increase in top speed, and even when you have 10 each one gives you a small turbo boost
- Hit opponents on the anti gravity section for a speed boost
- Draft behind players for speed boosts
- Get as many mini turbos as possible, at least one on every small corner
- Follow the racing line to maximise turbo boost building and corner speed
- Learn the shortcuts worth taking
- Items are a game all by themselves, learn how to avoid or mitigate the blue shell even without items
Source: I made a big spreadsheet with all the visible and hidden stats and crunched the numbers, plus I won a large local game store tournament.