Diddy Kong Racing is a racing game for the Nintendo 64 developed by Rareware. It was released in 1997. 800,000 copies were ordered in the two weeks before Christmas 1997, making it the fastest selling video game at the time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. An enhanced remake of this game for the Nintendo DS titled Diddy Kong Racing DS was released February 6, 2007.

A karting game like Mario Kart 64, DKR also has a distinctive adventure mode. The game features characters from Rare games, some of which had yet to be released at the time of this game's release. Diddy Kong Racing was partially intended to help introduce some of Rare's future franchise characters at an early time, so gamers would recognize them when they appeared in future titles later on. For example, Banjo appeared in this game, but would not appear in his own franchise until later in Banjo-Kazooie.

In Diddy Kong Racing, a player can choose to be in either a car, hovercraft, or airplane. However, certain levels have certain restrictions. For example, in the course "Hot Top Volcano", a player can use an airplane or a hovercraft, but not a car.