A cow sketch inspired many of Mario Kart World’s non-playable track drivers.
According to the game’s development account, one designer sketched a cow from the Moo Moo Meadows track driving a truck. That playful idea helped lead to many course obstacles becoming non-player-character drivers rather than static hazards.
The result is that several characters who appear around the game world are not merely background decorations. Many of the new playable characters also exist as obstacles on the tracks, making the world feel populated and giving the courses more moving traffic.
The cow is therefore connected to both the game’s visual humor and its broader design philosophy. Mario Kart World treats its open world as an active place filled with drivers, vehicles, and hazards, rather than as a collection of empty racing lanes.