Well, the cup ended and the tickets did not expire.

Just as you said, it's completely random. There's no rhyme or reason to how the game places you in each match, as you can restart the race, and start in a completely different position than you were in previously. You can start a race with the highest possible race point multipliers in all 3 categories (racer, glider, kart), and still start in last occasionally.

No. It appears that stars are only used for accessing new cups and tour gifts. At the end of the previous tour, the star count reset and stars obtained during the New York tour didn't count toward anything anymore.

Have a frenzy and ram into them. There are probably other ways but thats how I do this challenge. So find a course with pipes (the SNES Mario race and Toad's race do have them) and find a character that you've got a 3 items per box with, and then just play it a few times. When you get a frenzy, just go ram some pipes.

Based off the list of characters I found here, the only two characters that have exactly 3 hairs are, Morton Lakitu

Pretty sure that karts/gliders/drivers do not give any statistical advantage, except what is written on the tin. So MKT being a score-attack game, you will probably want to take the driver/kart/glider in the highest category available (For more items and better combos) The driver category gives 1-2-3 items (can only start a frenzy with 3 items) The kart category gives combo time (You have longer between actions without breaking combo) The glider category gives combo score (actions give more point the higher the combo goes, this boosts that bonus score) Then in that category you have choices, if you want to take the highest base score or one of the lower ones to grind some points into it. Pretty sure the base score is only that. Taking the one with 50 score higher than the other (in the same category) is only 50 free points at the start of the race, nothing more. For drivers there's also the special that differs, and for gliders there's the 'more chance of x item' and karts give more points on a specific action, but those are preference, and as I said earlier, I'm pretty sure do not give statistical differences (like more top speed or more acceleration)

Certain cups are time-gated when added to the game, meaning you must wait a set amount of time before the cup becomes playable. A quick ticket is used to bypass this waiting period and grant you instant access to the cup. You can use the ticket from the cup selection screen when you have selected a cup which is currently under construction.

I live in the UTC+2 timezone, so I asked my friend who lives in the UTC-7 timezone to send me a screenshot so I could confirm that the time the "next day" starts in Mario Kart Tour is one, global moment and not dependent on some timer per player. After doing the math, our times did line up (and I found out, interestingly, that the Daily Select items are different for each person). Additionally, I ensured that the game does switch the "hours remaining" on the hour exactly (instead of rounding up or down based on the minutes) by taking a screenshot at 21:55 and then again at 22:01. Sure enough, on the hour is when the "hours remaining" switches. So according to my friend's time zone and my time zone (e.g. right now at 22:00 there are 9 hours remaining and I am in UTC+2), the game switches to a new day at 6:00am UTC.

Mario Kart Tour is currently a single-player game with no multiplayer to speak of. Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe hours have been spent solo. ... But it's not here at launch with Mario Kart Tour: there is a multiplayer option in the menu, but it's grayed out with the text "inbound! So you are playing against CPU/Computers I Don’t Think You Read all This but this is a quote from The creaters Kantan Games' Toto said investors should "manage their expectations to some extent" as the initial launch of Mario Kart Tour has "a big minus" that is core to the game's popularity — the lack of a multiplayer mode. "There are tournaments inside the game, right? There are leader boards inside the game, and ... you cannot play against your friends," he said. "I think it is a little bit ridiculous." "I think it will dampen the reaction, I think that, you know, some people might complain. And I think that ... it might also hurt monetization to some extent," Toto said, as consumers will likely be "more motivated to spend money" if they can play with their friends. Still, he said the number of downloads for the game will likely be "through the roof" and it will still "be a hit" nevertheless.

200cc is there just for an extra challenge, though the tracks aren't designed around it (for example, you can go out of bounds in Dino Dino Jungle just by launching off a blue ramp). It can also be used to help you get better combos by reducing the time it takes to travel through barren areas, though it's possible to boost your combo time (time allowed between actions in a combo) enough that you can chain miniturbos endlessly. This can be done by choosing gliders that favor the track in question and levelling them up by getting repeats of it.

No they do not. (in the way that you are thinking) I tested this out, and it appear that coins do not give an overall increase of max speed in Mario Kart Tour like coins have in previous games. However, if you look closely, at the moment you collect a coin little streaks of air appear around the screen, seemingly indicating that there is a small temporary boost in speed right when you pick the coin up. (here's the less compressed version) I recorded two similar races side-by-side, and you can watch them below. In one video I tried to avoid coins as much as possible (I think I collected 5 throughout the race) and in the other I collect as many coins as I can (I think I end up with 24). You can watch when I pass a tuft of grass, or any other object in the environment, and count the seconds between when I pass another marker in the environment. The amount of time is the same regardless of if I have many or few coins.

You need to unlock the fourth or fifth cup in the list (depending on the week) in order to unlock ranking. Once you've done that for the first time, you will be able to access the friends list and see how you compare vs your friends. (addendum: week 1 ranking was on cup 4: Koopa Troopa. week 2 ranking was on cup 5: Toad. week 3 ranking is on cup 4: Bowser Jr. My assumption is that this pattern will hold in 2 week cycles)

At the start of the game you are granted 20 rubies and forced to spend 5 as part of the tutorial. After that, you can gain more rubies from: Leveling up - Each time you gain enough experience to level up you are given an award. Sometimes the award is rubies. Tour gifts - Between certain cups you are given a tour gift. Rubies are sometimes contained in these gifts. Rank-eligible cups - Some cups are "rank-eligible" and will grant you rubies for placing in the top spots. Daily login bonuses - Rubies are awarded every few days. Challenges - After clearing 7 cups you will unlock challenges which sometimes award rubies for completion.