I love Crash Team Racing, it has good game feel in my opinion but I think Mario Kart benefits from being a much more simple game, that pick up and play factor. Limited mechanics to mess around with, striped down but focused, short load times and great music. Mario Kart 64 didn't need some dumbass multi-tap for 4 players either.
I still standby that Naughty Dog did some novel things with Crash Team Racing