The game features eight racers and four secret racers for a total of twelve racers. The game features three cups (called "pots") with five tracks in each cup. The Magic Pot combines the first two cups into one, similar to All Cup Tour in Mario Kart Double Dash.
The magic cauldron is gone, Cocoto and his friends might lose their powers. The only way to get it back: win against all their opponents in a serie of karting races whose stake is the magic cauldron.
Cocoto Kart Racer was originally released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, being published by BigBen Interactive. The original release was exclusive to Europe. A completely separate version was developed for the Game Boy Advance, and was released that same year.
The DS version was released in Europe, Japan, and US/Canada in 2007, being the first time a Cocoto game was released internationally. It was published by BigBen, Kemco, and Conspiracy Entertainment for each respective region. This is the only Cocoto game in the series to be released in Japan, since no other Cocoto game was released there since then. That same year, Midway published the game in the UK under the name Cocoto Racers.
The Wii version was released in 2007 in Europe, once again being published by BigBen. In 2008, video game publisher Conspiracy Entertainment published both Cocoto Kart Racer and Cocoto Magic Circus in North America.
The game was released in 2009 on iPhone, and an iPad version released in 2010. As of 2022, this version has been delisted from the App Store, as part of Apple's policy to delist any apps and games that have not been updated for a certain amount of time. It is also only a 32 bit game, which makes it incompatible with modern iOS versions and devices.
In 2011, a revision of Cocoto Kart Racer was released exclusively in Europe called Cocoto Kart Racer 2. Oddly enough, it is branded as a sequel, despite it being the same as the original Cocoto Kart Racer. The only notable difference, aside from the rebranding, is that the game now offers support for the Wii Wheel, and the tracks being tweaked to fit the new control scheme.