I am a fan of relatively useless and unnecessary options and features in games that are apparently there just for the heck of it, and Mario Kart 64's little changing HUD is one such thing.
I liked the third one with the racers going around the screen. It showed, roughly, what was happening to everyone at any given time, and I was crazy enough to enjoy paying attention to how bad Luigi was blowing up in 8th place over and over again.