Monkey race and boat have items that can slow down a time. Are they required on runs or not?

I would assume so, since it doesn't say "No Items" in the category.

On other games like Mario Kart, they have "no skips", and "no skips, no items" categories, where "no skips" generally means they have items turned on.

Course I have no idea, that's just what I'm guessing.

Just realized they aren't >_< didn't look at all the videos for this category. Silly me :P