Are characters unlocked by number of individual track races completed?

Question

When trying to unlock characters, is the amount of races needed the amount of individual tracks or the amount of complete versus races (say you do 4-track races, does that set of 4 count as 4 or 1 toward the total?)

Answer 1

A race is one single track.

A group of four races on four different tracks is a cup.

For unlocking characters via the racing criteria, finishing a four track cup would count as four individual races.