This is how you unlock Mario Kart World’s gayest track, Rainbow Road

Mario Kart World has hit the Nintendo Switch 2 consoles all around the world – but one conspicuously sparkly track is missing. This is how you unlock Rainbow Road.

The Mario Kart franchise is back, eight years after the release of its previous console edition, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – and coinciding with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, everyone’s favourite plumber and friends have been unleashed upon the tracks of Mario Kart World.

The game’s main new feature is that for the first time, a Mario Kart game includes (clue’s in the name) an open world, with players able to drive from one course to another in the game’s Grand Prix mode, free roam when they’re not racing and even complete one long race through five tracks in Knockout Tour.

But even though World comes with an assortment of new and returning courses for drivers to race through, there’s one conspicuous absence when players boot up the game; Rainbow Road.

Notorious for being every Mario Kart’s hardest track, Rainbow Road is a course that typically takes place up in space, and has racers speed along, well, a rainbow, effectively making it Mario’s gayest course.

In order to unlock Mario Kart World’s Rainbow Road, players must complete all seven of the game’s Grand Prix options that are available at the start; the Mushroom Cup, the Flower Cup, the Star Cup, the Shell Cup, the Banana Cup, the Leaf Cup and the Lightning Cup.

Each Cup contains four tracks that players must complete to unlock the eighth Grand Prix – the Special Cup.

The Special Cup then contains four of its own tracks; Acorn Heights, Mario Circuit, Peach Stadium and, you guessed it, Rainbow Road.

Pleasingly, it also seems like players don’t even have to ace all 28 courses; the Special Cup will unlock even if you haven’t placed first in each Grand Prix, or if you run them in the easiest speed, 50cc.

So simply finish each race in the game, and Rainbow Road will appear, ready for you to drive on after a blast off in front of Peach’s Castle (after you’ve completed the Cup’s first three tracks). And it’s a doozy.

Mario Kart World and the Nintendo Switch 2 are out now.

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