History Main / RacingGhost

* ''MirrorsEdge''

* The Gourmet Race in ''KirbySuperStar''. Instead of a transparent Kirby replaying your fastest run, a flashing star is used as the ghost.

* ''{{Kirby}} Air Ride'': In Free Run mode, where you can race an unlimited number of laps for good time, a star will follow the rout of your fastest lap in the current session.

* ''VideoGame/{{F-Zero}}'' has these in the typical time trial fashion, but ''F-Zero GX'' takes it one step further. [[spoiler: The very end of story mode has Captain Falcon race against The Creators of the universe and they are essentially the developers with their best records recorded. That's right, the fate of the entire universe rides on beating someone's best time in a time trial race, but it doesn't mean that [[NintendoHard it won't give you troubles.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{F-Zero}}''

* ''VideoGames/SonicGenerations'' is a platforming example. One of the challenges to complete involves beating a ghost version of Sonic through a stage. If you want that S rank, you'll have to beat it, as the rank drops very quickly once it hits the finish line.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' has a literal ghost you can race against. There's also a sort of "cosmic" Mario (he's the same shape as Mario, but looks like a [[UnmovingPlaid cutout into outer space]]) you can race against in a timed run of a given level. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' has a raceable ghost of Luigi, though you only get a BraggingRightsReward for beating him.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' uses this to show how other players have traversed the myriad stages. Their movements are portrayed by limbed Sprixies with the heads of the Miis used by the other players. Aside from being raceable, they can also be used to discover level secrets you might have overlooked yourself.

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart''
** The 7th game takes the concept pretty far. Every track has multiple staff ghosts (each unlocked after beating the last). If left in sleep mode, the 3DS will download ghosts from random players. There's an option to play against 7 ghosts at once. The Wii version also allowed downloads but had less ghosts per track at a time.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' has a literal ghost you can race against. There's also a sort of "cosmic" Mario (he's the same shape as Mario, but looks like a [[UnmovingPlaid cutout into outer space]]) you can race against in a timed run of a given level.

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[[quoteright:240:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marioghostkart_3490.png]]

* The Gourmet Race in ''KirbySuperStar''.

* At the beginning of the new SpeedRacer movie, Speed races against his brother's time, and it's represented as a RacingGhost.

* ''[[CrashBandicoot Crash Team Racing]]''

* ''{{Kirby}} Air Ride: In Free Run mode, where you can race an unlimited number of laps for good time, a star will follow the rout of your fastest lap in the current session.

* ''FZero''

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' has a literal ghost you can race against. There's also a sort of "cosmic" Mario (he's the same shape as Mario, but looks like a [[UnmovingPlaid cutout into outer space]]) you can race against in a timed run of a given level.

<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

In racing games, you sometimes have the option of competing against yourself in Time Trial mode, not just by the final time, but by racing against a hollow "ghost" recording of a previous run.

Variant: The staff ghost. Instead of the ghost being your run, it is the run of one of the developers for the game. They are usually very hard to beat or even find.

* ''[=~Mirror's Edge~=]''

* ''MarioKart''

* ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' has a literal ghost you can race against. There's also a sort of "cosmic" Mario (he's the same shape as Mario, but looks like a [[UnmovingPlaid cutout into outer space]]) you can race against in a timed run of a given level.

* In the ''TrackMania'' series, all opponents are always intangible ghosts: You only enemy is the track itself.

* A rare live-action version occurs in the first race of the ''Film/SpeedRacer'' film.

* ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlexn2hm2be8nol?from=Main.MirrorsEdge Mirror's Edge]]''
* ''Super Mario Galaxy'' has a literal ghost you can race against. There's also a sort of "cosmic" Mario (he's the same shape as Mario, but looks like a [[UnmovingPlaid cutout into outer space]]) you can race against in a timed run of a given level.