A file related to driver weights in Mario Kart World contains records of eight drivers suspected to have been unused. This data mining discovery has not yet been officially confirmed, and the names in the file do not prove that these characters will be added to the game via DLC.
The records involve Donkey Kong, Blooper, Ninja, the Goomba Twins, Chain Chomp, and Furia, along with "Bird" and "Banana" tags that do not clearly correspond to specific characters. This discovery was initially made by MondoMega and later spread by Rimea on social media.
Since these names appear in files related to character weights, the discoverer speculates that they may have been considered for inclusion in the playable driver roster. However, development files often retain placeholders, experimental content, and ultimately discarded references, so the presence of names alone cannot confirm whether these characters were fully developed.
Mario Kart 8 has previously expanded its roster of drivers through DLC, so these records have also sparked speculation about future content. However, there have already been false rumors and leaks surrounding Mario Kart World, and Nintendo has not yet officially announced any DLC plans for this title.