Waiting hurts my soul...
I could also have said that it's like saying, "(Boss) fights are the most interesting parts of an RPG, so we should only time those." Also the key word here is 'like' as in 'a close comparison', not an exact one. Having a list of lap times is still viable, I'm just not certain it would stand alone here.
I'm not in no way the last word on this, only a vocal member of the community. From my experience, if you can time levels in the standard way (real time of all play time, or the full in-game timer), that is most likely the way that will be used. Special case rules are kept to minimum in order to be consistent so that new members know what kind of timing will be used for a game.
Are the number of laps chosen in championship mode as well?
I'm not in no way the last word on this, only a vocal member of the community. From my experience, if you can time levels in the standard way (real time of all play time, or the full in-game timer), that is most likely the way that will be used. Special case rules are kept to minimum in order to be consistent so that new members know what kind of timing will be used for a game.
Are the number of laps chosen in championship mode as well?