In its early beta stage, the game was known as Super Mario Kart R. Some differences were Kamek as a playable character who would later be replaced with Donkey Kong. Also there was an option to have the multiplayer screen set to horizontally or vertically, but this was removed in the final version. A number of other small differences were the avatars in the "Character Select" screen, the textures of the "Item Boxes", the feather as an item, and other minor graphic details.

Originally, there were several nods to real world products such as Marlboro Cigarettes, Agip Gasoline, Mobil1 Oil, Goodyear, and 76 Gas Station. They were altered internationally for two likely reasons; One of the companies parodied sold cigarettes (possible trouble for an E rated game) and any of them could have sued. Despite the change, the track preview icons featuring the original Japanese sponsors were left unchanged in the Western versions.