You'll never recognize it, my friend. Vast differences in this game. Here's a list of them for our convenience of explanation:
Mini-turbos are only available for use if you have manual driving. Having automatic will render whatever button you use for mini-turboing useless.
Having the ability to mini-turbo can cause some vehicles to turn poorly. You have to use the mini-turbo a lot more often than in earlier games to succeed in races.
If you don't have manual and mini-turbo, and have automatic, your ability to turn will become more effective. But you can't jump, or boost without items/contraptions on the circuit.
If you want to take full advantage of mini-turbos, do not use bikes. As you know in earlier games, you have to opportunity to use a small boost and a large boost. The bikes are limited to small boosts, but karts perform both.
Bikes are faster, however, if you use up on the D-pad, which doesn't make them entirely useless.
Thats about it.