Mario Kart's Rainbow Road has a canonical real-world address, it seems

[Coloroscopio]

 

Ah, Mario Kart’s iconic Rainbow Road—a staple in the franchise with its stomach-churning drops and the ever-present threat of a rogue shell sending you plummeting into the abyss. Well, what if we told you these chaotic courses might have more grounding (pun intended) than you think?

 

Recent analyses by gaming fans suggest the Rainbow Road from Mario Kart Wii isn’t just floating in some cosmic void. It’s apparently parked majestically over a large chunk of Canada, with the starting line hovering over Quebec. This behemoth of a track even stretches across a sliver of Greenland—talk about a scenic race!

 

 

With that, there isn’t one definitive Rainbow Road. Like many things in the Mario universe, it’s delightfully ambiguous. Across different Mario Kart titles, Rainbow Road takes on various forms, each hinting at a unique location within the larger Mario world.

 

 

Mario Kart 8 takes a more European vacation. Here, the Rainbow Road cruises above the Mediterranean Sea, with Sardinia, Sicily, and Tunisia getting a front-row view of the high-octane action. This version might be smaller than its Canadian cousin, but it’s no less stunning.

 

 

 

And Mario Kart Tour brings Rainbow Road back to Asia, with this iteration casting a shadow over parts of Japan, China, and Southeast Asia.

 

Now, Nintendo probably didn’t have these tracks built to scale, but the thought of Rainbow Road looming over real-world locations adds a fun twist to the Mario Kart experience.

 

It just goes to show, all roads probably lead to the Rainbow Road.

 

• https://www.ign.com/articles/mario-kart-wiis-rainbow-road-is-apparently-canonically-positioned-over-a-large-part-of-canada 
• https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog/status/1813963215778533380

 

 

Images: Nintendo of America