The link is a deep dive retrospecitve, but in summary despite being a lifelong Mario Kart and F1 fan I had never heard of this game.
I absolutely love it, the racing is very enjoyable if you don’t expect powersliding style racing like Super Mario Kart.
It’s my new favourite ‘pure’ racing game on the SNES, I much prefer it to any of the top down or left-right games like Top Gear (and I’m a fan of Top Gear!).
I’ve watched a gameplay and you’re right. It has nothing to do with Mario Kart.
The gameplay is very different even though graphically they both look like the same game with different characters.
I will definitely try it.