The differences between mario kart and ctr are these
1. A lot of these characters are split between different active development teams, and while they probably COULD use these characters, they prefer not to, as not to step on any toes. This is likely why the only dk track in mario kart history to heavily pull from dkc iconography is the one where Retro Studios helped in development. Meanwhile for Crash, all the studios that used to work on it didn't work on it anymore, and there's no company culture keeping things off limits.
2. Mario has wayyy more characters to pull from than Crash. The reason Nitro Fueled's roster was so insane because it had to dig deep for characters to use in the live service updates. One of the characters is based on concept art for a character that was never meant to be a Crash character for Pete's sake. Mario puts out like 8 games a year, and most of those introduce new characters.
3. Mario has a long, long history with playable enemies and generally has hundreds of cute/cool/weird enemies people DO wanna play as. Aside from the Lab Assistant, Crash doesn't really have any iconic enemies.
I adore CTR. but these are very different games with very different situations.
Also. We don't know if this is the final roster.
1. A lot of these characters are split between different active development teams, and while they probably COULD use these characters, they prefer not to, as not to step on any toes. This is likely why the only dk track in mario kart history to heavily pull from dkc iconography is the one where Retro Studios helped in development. Meanwhile for Crash, all the studios that used to work on it didn't work on it anymore, and there's no company culture keeping things off limits.
2. Mario has wayyy more characters to pull from than Crash. The reason Nitro Fueled's roster was so insane because it had to dig deep for characters to use in the live service updates. One of the characters is based on concept art for a character that was never meant to be a Crash character for Pete's sake. Mario puts out like 8 games a year, and most of those introduce new characters.
3. Mario has a long, long history with playable enemies and generally has hundreds of cute/cool/weird enemies people DO wanna play as. Aside from the Lab Assistant, Crash doesn't really have any iconic enemies.
I adore CTR. but these are very different games with very different situations.
Also. We don't know if this is the final roster.
Not that that's an issue or anything. You do you and all that. I'm just saying I haven't seen someone dislike it until now.