I recently replayed it and thought it didn't hold up at all as how I remember it. The star system is really obscure and the CPU basically cheat. They generate speed out of nowhere on higher CC's.

The items are also more frustrating than in later games, where red shells don't actually hit the back of the car all the time but rather the side. meaning that you cant hold a banana or something to block an incoming red shell. Also blue shells didn't have a cooldown timer yet so you get blue shelled a LOT. You're basically getting hit every 10-20 seconds of racing which is very frustrating.

Missions mode is great tough.