Highway Tracks

History:

The Mushroom Innerkingdom Highway System was completed in 1954, which finally linked the many distant parts of the Kingdom together and allowed for both the many Adventures of Mario and Luigi as well as opportunities for Competition. Unlike ever before residents could travel across the lands and get to new places, most of which had new Race Tracks springing up as the Sport grew in popularity. As such, many of the power players from around the Mushroom World bought up land to make a Course or two, that is, except for Toad.

Toad was Consigliere to the Toadstool Royal Family and as such was forbidden to put his own money down to purchase land for commercial purposes. It was simply a conflict of interest. In order to get in on the Racing Action though, Toad was able to use certain portions of Public Roads as Race Tracks. It was a dangerous move, as he didn't shut the Highways down while doing this. In order to properly manage the tracks, many are close to his home of Mushroom City, tho some are also near his workplace, Peach's Castle.

64:

64 was again the initiator of this Track Trend. Toad's Turnpike opened up the Flower Cup which would be a common place for these kinds of tracks. It's virtually just a figure 8 with some hills that gently slope up and down along with some heavy traffic. The cars are a killer but it's really the big trucks that are very tricky to pass, especially when they pull up next to each other. The meridians are safe, but with 64's steering it's tough to stay there. There aren't any tough turns and plenty of straightaways, but you're never really going straight because there's a constant need to dodge other vehicles. Acceleration and handling are the absolute keys to all the Highway Tracks. In terms of geography, all of these are pretty close together, Toad's Turnpike is likely a highway leading into Mushroom City

Double Dash:

Super Circuit didn't have any Highway Tracks but Double Dash added two in Mushroom Bridge and Mushroom City. Mushroom Bridge is the rare Highway Track that takes place during the day. It's a bit more suburban than the hustle and bustle of the city and includes a huge bridge that has some nasty boosts but is cool if successful. Atop the bridge you can see Peach's Castle off in the distance, indicating that it's somewhat closer to the Heart of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mushroom Bridge again leads off the Flower Cup and is a pretty simple course, mostly a big loop with some curves through some tunnels, but again, the traffic, including a couple Bomb Karts makes it tricky, although this may be the most mildly dangerous one. Since no unlockable Character has a Secret Staff Ghost, the Ghost on this track is Koopa with Paratroopa in tow riding the Koopa Dasher in 1:31:458. It does return in DS however with Toad in the Mushmellow driving a  1:30:600.

From the Bridge we move on to the City, which is the only Highway Track to ever be in the Star Cup. It's actually pretty similar in construction to Toad's Turnpike, tho the overpass is a bit longer and there are multiple paths to take, although only the Secret Cut-Through Route is the smart one. It's also the only course that's featured in another course as Double Dash's Rainbow Road takes place in the skies above this City. For the Secret Staff Ghost, Paratroopa switches places with Koopa but stays in the Koopa Dasher with a time of 1:50:663. Again, the traffic here really isn't terrible to deal with (except for the Final On-Ramp) and the turns aren't really awful. If you drive on the edge of the wall you can avoid most of the Bigger Vehicles, I think you can go for Speed on this one, using something like the Piranha Pipes.

DS:

Shroom Ridge exists on the outskirts of Mushroom City and definitely contains the most complex course layout of the Highway Tracks. It has some brutal turns as well as oncoming traffic for the first time. The cars drive on the left-hand side, coming straight at the Player, in prior installments the Drivers always went with the flow. There is also a deadly drop-off for the first time. See, the gimmick of Highway Tracks used to only be that there were other Vehicles on the road. Shroom Ridge would be a fairly dangerous difficult track on its own (although maybe not concluding the Flower Cup), but the added Traffic makes it even tougher. You need to be able to react very fast here, so someone with expert Handling and Acceleration is key. Yoshi in the Egg 1 sounds good. The Ghost here is Toad in the Mushmellow again at 2:05:123.

Wii:

Half-Ridge...Half-City

Moonview Highway is really interesting. It's actually simply a big mash-up of Mushroom City and Shroom Ridge, with even a bit of Mushroom Bridge in there for good measure. Still, it's the only Highway Track in the Special Cup and it deserves to be there as one of the most difficult tracks in the game. There are huge cars and trucks that come barreling down the road, the most tricky parts are the blind turns that spell instant doom. There are also Vehicles that will actually swerve and change direction on the straightaways, meaning you go down one path to try to avoid something and it instead veers straight at you. If you're real sloppy you'll also fall off that bridge into the Unforgiving Abyss Below. There are two keys to this course: 1) Stay either in the middle of the road across the dividing lines where Cars are less likely to cross or on the left-hand side where you'll at least be going with traffic and 2) Hit the Double-X Boost while in the city. There are a series of boosts that go from left to right then right to left, do it while avoiding traffic and you'll get far ahead. Finally, there are Bomb Karts but no Mushroom Karts. Unfair.

Funky in the Spear is really good here although it's a bit uncontrollable and too slow to accelerate for effective Grand Prix Play. I prefer Daisy in the Mach Bike or Dolphin Dasher. The Staff Ghost is Peach, who has some Association with this track, there being a Giant Picture of her in Downtown and all. She's just a City Nightlife kind of Girl. She does a 02:16.802 in the Standard Kart M and then the Expert goes 02:04.163 in the Mach Bike.