Okay confused people, here's how it works. Nintendo runs contests (like on MKDD and MGTT) for who can get the best time trial time or whatever. Instead of just asking people to send in their times, where of course they could/would lie, they instead have to send in a "secret code" generated by the game that represents the time, except it prevents you from just lying about your time because only Nintendo knows what time the code represents.
The code is just a way to let Nintendo know your time is real.
