Diddy Kong Racing wasn't originally going to star Diddy Kong, and was originally a game called Pro AM 64. It wasn't until a demo of the game was presented to Shigeru Miyamoto that he suggested Diddy be the mascot of the game.

Early in Diddy Kong Racing's development, when it was known as Pro-Am64, Timber was the game's main character.

Tiptup is a recurring NPC character in the Banjo-Kazooie series that, along with Banjo, also made his debut in Diddy Kong Racing in 1997. However, Tiptup was originally the name of a turtle in Dream: Land of Giants, the game that would eventually morph into Banjo-Kazooie. Halfway through the development of BK, the development team behind Diddy Kong Racing (or Pro-Am 64 as it was called before Diddy Kong was included later on) were in need of names for their racers, one of which happened to be a turtle, and thus it was given the Tiptup name. Tiptup was then incorporated into future Rare games like Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.