64 was lowkey the most overrated Mario Kart IMO.
I like the OG game better because in that game the heavier characters had higher top speeds the the lightweights. That made sense because the heavyweights were the hardest characters to use effectively, but had the best payoff if you were willing to put in the work.
You were playing it safe if you picked Toad or Koopa, you had to put in the time to master Bowser/Donkey Kong if you really wanted to compete.
With the N64 game, Yoshi/Toad/Peach were clearly the best at everything so there was no risk/reward dynamic and no incentive to think about which characters you picked.
Plus, the original game had more tracks and better music than 64.