Grand Prix
There are eight cups in the two Grand Prixs. The two Grand Prix are the Nitro Grand Prix and Retro Grand Prix. There are four tracks in each cup.

You can choose one of three engine classes to start with. 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. As you progress through the game you will unlock 150cc Mirror Mode, which is basically a mirror version of the tracks in 150cc. The higher the engine class, the faster your kart will be.

The Nitro Cup consists of new tracks. The cups are the Mushroom cup, the Flower cup, the Star Cup and the Special Cup. The Retro Grand Prix consists of old tracks from Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Double Dash!! There is each one of those in each of the four retro cups. The Shell cup, Banana cup, Leaf cup and Lightning cup.

Time Trials
In the Time Trials Mode you can try and improve your times. Users can also receive and send ghosts to other users. Players get a number of mushrooms depending on what character and kart they use.

Another good point, is the fact that when you get under a certain time limit you can unlock a staff ghost to beat. These staff ghosts do not snake, however they are quite good, but not impossible to beat.

VS
In Versus, you can play in any engine class against computer players at any level (i.e. Easy, Normal, Hard). You can choose the courses you want, or set it to random, or set it to go in order. You can control how many matches you want to play either by races or wins. In wins, the first player to finish the race gets a point, and the whole race ends. Also you can set teams; either red or blue.

Battle
There are two modes in Battle Mode. Ballon Battle and Shine Runners. You can be in teams and select one of six courses.

In Balloon Battle players start with one balloon and have four balloons spare. Users can blow their balloons up by lightly blowing in the microphone which doesnt take as long as holding select. Users with a lower amount of balloons will receive better items such as stars or three red shells. When the balloons you have blown up have all popped you lose. The winner is the last one standing.

In Shine Runners (from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!) Shine Sprites (from Super Mario Sunshine) are placed randomly across the course. Users collect these shine sprites; the more you have the better. You hit others so that they lose their shine. When this happens their shine goes to another location nearby. It's your job to get this shine. After a time limit of one minute, users who have a shine will continue the game, however those with the least number of shines will be dropped out of the game. The losers will then go out, and drop a shine.The players with more shines successes through to the next round. This continues until the player with the most shines win.

Missions
Missions are a new mode in the game; ideal for players who needs a challenge. There are 7 levels, consisting 8 levels each and a Boss. Players will be given a rating depending on how quickly they completed the task. An example of a mission is to go through 6 gates on the Nintendo DS within a time limit.