>>712772440
how interconnected the systems are
mk has always felt, and feels even more now, like a collection of little moment-to-moment techs with on-off switches
you can't fail partially, you either do the thing or don't, it really is like speedrunning
proper racing is more incremental, interconnected, and has more pronounced risk-reward game. a little better line here will result in a snowball effect that will improve the rest of your lap, but the faster you go the easier it is to fail. racing sets you up for failure, but that failure only comes from your own hubris and nobody else's.
there are other games with moment-to-moment "advanced techs" that are nevertheless racing. for example, f-zero gx's mts (kind of a drifting tech) plays well with its speed retention systems- if you have more speed over cruise, your mts becomes faster but harder to control, and if your mts is faster, you carry more speed out of the corner and into the next straight, so you create a feedback loop of speed that will eventually lead you to running out of skill if you persist with your desire to go faster.

that all is before we consider powerups and rng actively sabotaging racing. there are racing games that have the exact same sets of powerups that still function perfectly well as natural rubberbanding, but don't take away from racing, for example blur's fixed powerup locations and "blue shell" that you can pass onto the next guy in line with skillful driving and still considerable speed loss, or wipeout's more situational but more powerful powerups and an extra risk-reward loop with an interconnected powerup-health-roll boost system.