IMO 7 has a good part of what makes 8 good, especially better item balance (which had already been improved a bit in Wii, but not enough). And I really liked some of the tracks, though some of the linear ones did not convince me, including Rainbow Road.

But 8's tracks just blew my mind, both the originals and the heavily reimagined classic ones. And the ones from the DLC were even better (well, fuck Baby Park). 200CC being thrown in as a patch was refreshing too. The only thing that was not great and I know was not well received was the loss of actual battle arenas (fixed in 8 deluxe), but since I almost never play those I didn't care much.

I would have loved for 8D's pass to be in the same vein as the base tracks, even if it had a lot fewer, instead of hastily recycling Tour content. They clearly went for quantity over quality for those. And the city tracks feel awful to play IMO.