Usage of words like "artificial challenge" is a signed admission of your scrubbiness.
Artificial challenge is the developer cheaply making the game hard to control/play, instead of just hard to beat.
Check your TV, maybe it has lag or something, try playing on gamepad because gamepad has little to no lag.
That is something I didn't think of. It's a 60" vizio we were playing that I have only previously played MK8 (2 days before) with no noticeable control issues... But thinking back... that may explain why I wasn't racing as tight on the tracks as I do on my tv and Wii u at home.
p.s. the Wii U we were playing on was a "new" refurb, not that that should matter.