It isn’t about the character you choose to use for the race. I’d be more concerned about the 50cc part. Although, now that you mention it, it seems like using bigger characters (Bowser, etc) made the car move slower.
My recollection was big characters had a higher top speed, but slow acceleration. Small characters were the opposite. Medium characters didn't excel or suck at either.
This isn't correct for N64 Mario Kart. They actually did give the lightweights the best acceleration and top speed. I found a video that did some analysis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6AxbNL2ET0
That was not my recollection of how it was supposed to work or how it worked in practice, but I found an archive of the original guidebook, and it says exactly what you said. Interesting. I got passed up by Donkey Kong and Bowser on straightaways all the time, but maybe that's more of a mirror mode challenge thing than a size of the karts things.
Want to feel older? Since the N64, we've had the GameCube, Wii, Wii U and Switch. The latter of which has been out for 7 years already and is probably going to be replaced soon.
But... like imagine the worth of our stories in 50 years. Well have essentially seen the entire evolution of gaming, from the beginning of digital gaming, personally experiencing it.
We'll be interviewed like witnesses to historical events.
"So you could cheat in Track&Field by getting a lego wheel piece, and rolling it over the A and B buttons, which was much faster than trying to push them in an alternating order."
"The taunting laugh of the Duck Hunt dog still haunts my nightmares"