I agree completely. I'm a big MK fan, and I don't care at all about the Sonic & Sega universe, but the racing mechanics of Sonic are much better than MK:Wii. It finally pays off to drive well and powerslide/boost often...unlike in MKWii where a single item would ruin the whole race, and no matter how much you boosted you couldn't get ahead of the AI.

There is no reason that the MK characters must only be mario characters, staying the same for the sake of staying the same....so many other Nintendo characters are just as well known among fans. Characters really don't change the gameplay, they're pretty interchangeable.

That said, Nintendo usually doesn't learn from the successes of others....for better or worse, they do what they want.