Why is there no equivalent to Mario Kart on PC?

what about sonic stars racing? (i can't remember the exact name... all stars racing?)

What about Wacky Wheels?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/212480/

Re-volt and Lego Racers also had the power-up based racing, but yes, they were a looong time ago. I don't know why though - while simple racing bores me, I loved these games, I would like a similar one :)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/362930

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Super Indie Karts
The Karters
Wacky Wheels
Garfield Kart
F1 Race Stars
Coffin Dodgers
Kart Chaser : The Boost VR (requires VR headset)

Some others that aren't on Steam:

BC Racers (freeware game from 1995)
Crazy Chicken Kart 2
Go Kart Go! Turbo!
Nicktoons Racing
SuperTuxKart
ToonCar
Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour

BLUR had powerups on the courses like Mariokart iirc, and was on Steam but was removed a few years ago.
Macbat 64 has a kart minigame, and is on Steam, but its very basic.

There's been several Mario kart clones on PC. The two earliest I know of are Skunny Kart & Wacky Wheels. Neither has aged really well (Skunny kart is a flat out bad game). More recently we got the rather excellent Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which actually better than Mario kart in my opinion (and I say that as a big fan of the Mario kart series).

http://store.steampowered.com/app/370600/Hello_Kitty_and_Sanrio_Friends_Racing/

Um, hello? Garfield Kart?

More of a DOS era thing: http://store.steampowered.com/app/358380/Wacky_Wheels/ It did get a remake though: http://store.steampowered.com/app/422590/Wacky_Wheels_HD/

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is all you need, OP.

ToonCar

Let me add another alternative: F1 Race Stars by Codemasters. Pretty fun.

Hello Kitty and Sanrio Friends Racing
http://store.steampowered.com/app/370600/Hello_Kitty_and_Sanrio_Friends_Racing/

Coffin Dodgers
http://store.steampowered.com/app/320540/Coffin_Dodgers/

Not on Steam, Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour

Teddy Floppy Ear - The Race - Literally it's a Mario Cart with Polish toon called Teddy Floppy Ear.

Sonic is the best kart racer of all time.

Blur, but it was removed from Steam :/

yup, there are some. I prefer Sonic

Sonic is the best one I have tried so far. Blur wasn't bad but I don't think it was all that 'Mario Kart'-ish.

Also, dolphin + xbox controllers + roms work quite well but you should only use legal backups :-) I can confirm that dolphin will work with 4 xbox 360 controllers and you can pick up a wireless receiver on amazon for $20-25 (one receiver is all you need for all 4 controllers)

Edit: Also, is there a good way to giveaway copies of Zero Gero that one might have leftover in their inventory (SG counts it as bundled so no GA and since its not a key I have to send manually)?

SUPER TUX KART.
It's a Mario Kart clone with its own flavour, featuring iconic characters from the Linux community.
It's also free, open source, and it's been greenlit last march.
official website --- https://supertuxkart.net/Main_Page

GF Kart
P.S. GF is Garfield :D

We have better: http://store.steampowered.com/app/396900/GRIP/

My favorite part of Mario Kart is the battle mode :D I'd like to know if there are any kart racing games for pc that have a similar mode.