Never felt that way to me. It has worked perfectly since day 1 and never felt tacked on and not optimized. Don't even need a Wiimote to navigate the ingame menus.
Nintendo clearly intended to support every available controller option. Wiimote by itself, Wiimote and nunchuck combo, Classic Controller, and GameCube controllers. None of them feel like they were playing second fiddle to me.
Neat.
Anyway, like I mentioned before, I was referring to polished cart-racers with shit controls like MK DS and MK7. It's nice to have one that uses a real controller.
"One of the ways I gauge a DS game is by recharges. "...Tycho (Penny Arcade)