What does the stat mean? Why is acceleration so important? Does acceleration affect mini-turbo(ing)? Does the acceleration stat also lower the rate for de-celleration?

I NEED ANSWERS!

I play on PS3 (Kappa) and use analog controls. I'm true cancer...

The 'fastest' characters are the max speed ones, Tiny and Dingodile, however on some courses (Papu Pyramid comes to mind), their mediocre acceleration and awful turning stat can be a big problem and make it... either extremely difficult or straight-up impossible to keep sacred fire. One of the two. I'm not sure there.

Coco/N. Gin's stats are favoured for being the fastest middle ground between decent turning and good speed/acceleration.

Yea Tiny and Dingo have to do some whack shit like u-turns to even make stuff like Pyramid spiral. Hub 3 onwards the tracks get a lot tighter with curves and our heroes fall flat on their asses and just bleed time everywhere. Probably faster in a TAS setting regardless.

Coco and N.Gin are faster than Crash and Cortex because you can take corners way better. It's some inexplicable thing that I confirmed through actually playing the game. I guess you also u-turn a lot during the run so you'd need good accel in order to get speed back.

Polar and Pura are too slow to save time anywhere at all.

Polar and Pura are a nightmare. The max turning makes it goddamn impossible to boost more than twice most of the time.