The best way to implement a Mario Kart driver in Smash is Baby Mario and Luigi in the Goo-Goo Buggy - perhaps you could swap them for Baby Peach & Daisy given they don't have variant characters yet but Mario does - but I think they kill a lot of birds with one stone
- Implement the babies without actually putting them in more harm's way than they would be in in Mario Kart (hell, the buggy itself is big enough compared to most other karts that you can probably have it be the hurtbox and not the babies)
- The babies are typically associated (in a mainstream sense) with Kart above Island or PiT, something it's harder to say about other variant characters (given the babies are mostly Kart-exclusive nowadays) or Waluigi/Daisy who have their own sort of cult crowds and individualised fan-lore
- Really distinctive kart design that is still clearly a vehicle
- Signature item is the closest any Mario Kart item is to a conventional fighting weapon that a whole moveset could be built off of (essentially a living mace) - the chain chomp could also be the one getting grabbed (maybe a hurtbox that is immune to grabs but not hits?) since most of the "exceptionally" (not really) violent Smash moves are grabs of some kind.
- Would to some extent represent Double Dash specifically, specificality is neat and Double Dash is probably the most item/offense-centric MK game.
