1st Row (Mainstays): It's the Mario Wonder cast, plus Rosalina & Luma. I dunno if I need to explain them.
2nd Row (Enemies & Bosses): Koopa Troopa, Shy Guy, Birdo, Dry Bones, Wiggler & Petey are Karting frequents. I always felt that a Goomba character was missing from the game. They can ride bikes in Mario Party, I think putting them in karts are allowed. The Viruses are actually pretty cool choices. They could all sit in the kart together, with one holding the items, and the other two steering. I felt that we could used more Odyssey reps in spin-offs aside from Pauline, and decided one of them would be a Broodal. If Honey Queen could drive a kart in 7, I think a fat bunny woman on a bike would also be plausible.
3rd Row (WAAAAAARIO & Luigi): We've got Wario, Waluigi, Wapeach, Captain Sy..... wait, what's the scrapped character doing here? Well, based on the little bit of info we have on her, I would LOVE her inclusion in games alongside the Wario Bros. Though, she's also pretty unlikely, since... y'know, scrapped character. You could probably replace her with Ashley, since the two seem kiiiiinda similar to me. Captain Syrup & Mona representing the Wario Land & Ware series, which.... I dunno why they aren't in more Mario spin-offs. Foreman Spike is here solely because I thought (and still think) the inclusion in the Mario Movie meant he could show up more. I was fascinated by him even before he was announced to be in the movie, so... yeah, I was happy. Joining King Boo are the Luigi's Mansion troupe of E. Gadd, Polterpup, & Hellen Gravely! E. Gadd feels like the next big Luigi's Mansion character in line. Poochy opens the doors to dogs driving, and with ghosts also being able to drive, its only a matter of time before we get ghost dogs. To represent the third game in the series with a character, I chose to add Hellen G. I'll admit, she's risen to become my newest favorite character from the subseries, and I hope she'll be given the Polterpup treatment and stick around for a new installment.
4th Row (Koopa Troop): Bowser & Jr. need no explanation, and Kamek has finally come home. I don't wanna lose him. And yes, I kept all 7 Koopalings. It was weird that they filled the MK8 roster on the Wii U, while Bowser Jr, Diddy Kong and others were left to rot, yes. Buuuuuut, in a much bigger cast, I think they could totally slip right in!
5th Row (Konga Bye Babies): DK & Diddy are always welcomed in games like these, Dixie was allowed in Tour, and Wii fans would kill me if I didn't mention Funky. Cranky would just be funny. And K. Rool is only here because I'm coping that Nintendo will use him again after Smash. Pauline's practically a lock now, and the Baby Bros. are the only babies I'd consider to use. And then there's Poochy, the only Yoshi-exclusive character that was in Tour.
6th Row (Misc. Weirdos/Where things get weirder): There's Toadsworth, who I'm hoping isn't dead. I genuinely thought Honey Queen would've made it into the Booster Course Pass after seeing Wiggler. Seeing others actually suggest her as a character in the future has influenced me here. Okay, hear me out guys: Mary O. from Super Mario Maker. Mario Maker is special to me, technically my first Mario game, which is how I remember she exists. And since they referenced Mario Kart in Mario Maker, I think it's fair to bring some Mario Maker love over to the races. Cappy is a character who I am still BAFFLED isn't in more things. Almost every 3D game had a main character that could show up in spin-offs, and Cappy should be one of them. Unfortunately, we had to sacrifice him in order to make Pauline a relevant character again. Here's to hoping that Prince Florian, who's right next to him, doesn't suffer the same fate. Stella & Grape are fresh faces from Peach's game, who could fit in with the likes of all those other non-mario character-centric series characters like Diddy Kong & King Boo. Mii's are neat. My one wish is that they bring the some of the stuff from Miitopia into the main Mii maker somehow. I wanna feel like I'm playing as my totally original character Hotel Mario, dang it. Finally... Vivian & Popple. Along with said Mario-adjacent franchises, I feel that the RPGs should also be represented in Mario Kart before we get a Super Smash Kart or whatever. Intelligent Systems, the guys who work on WarioWare stuff, also work on Paper Mario, so I thought why not. Vivian seems to be the most famous of the partner characters to my knowledge. As for M&L, because Brothership exists, I'm confident that a character from here would also make it one day. I narrowed it down to Popple, since he's pretty expressive, and isn't Dead/Destroyed/Implied to be either like Fawful. If Popple had legal issues with getting him due to AlphaDream being dead or something, they could use the new character Connie from Brothership instead.
