I guess Mario Kart Wii deserves an honourable mention.
Cruising towards the goal, only one turn left of the final lap, and I've been in the lead the entire race.
*whoosshhh*
Huh? What was tha-
BLAM!
Blue flying shell! Bleep!
Now well, third will get me the gold trophy t-
SMASH!
Guy with Giant Mushroom! Certain hot place!
OK, fifth is okay, I supp-
BANG!
Red shell! Excrement!
ARRGHH!! Eight! Now well, three meters lef-
SHMOCK!
Bullet Bill. Finished on tenth. Bad word.
No matter how good you drive, you may end up at some random spot because you're carpet bombed with items the last few hundred meters. An easy way to win is to stay at place 8 or so, getting awesome items, and bomb your way up to second, and put all your eggs in the "red shell basket". But if you take the lead from the start, you'll face four to five items in quick succession (how come the POW blocks always hit you one sec after the Blooper has appeared, so that you can't see it?), at the worst possible time. I've turned off items once, and as soon as I broke free of the cluster, I was in the lead the entire race. And won by 45 seconds.