The racoon's name is "Marin". And why does everyone keep complaining about the new characters? This isn't anything they just started doing. They've been adding new characters since the Genesis days. Let's see...
-Sonic 1 had Sonic, Dr. Robotnik/Dr. Eggman, the animals, and Badniks.
-Sonic 2 added Tails.
-SegaSonic added Mighty and Ray (which they no longer use).
-Sonic CD added Amy and Metal Sonic.
-Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles added Knuckles and that Egg-Robo (that one that replaced Robotnik while playing as Knuckles, and needless to say, HE isn't used anymore), as well as Mecha Sonic.
-Sonic Triple Trouble added Nack the Weasel/Fang the Sniper.
-Knuckles' Chaotix added Espio, Charmy, Vector, Heavy, and Bomb.
-Sonic the Fighters added Bark the Polar Bear and Bean the Dynamite.
-Sonic X-Treme (would've) added Gazebo Boobowski and Tiara Boobowski.
Sonic R- Added Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles.
Sonic Adventure added E-102 Gamma, Big the Cat, Tikal, and Chaos. Oh, and the Chao, of course.
Sonic Adventure 2- Added Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Professor Gerald, and Maria.
-Sonic Advance added Mecha Knuckles.
-Sonic Advance 2 added Cream the Rabbit and Cheese.
-Sonic Heroes added Omega.
-Sonic Battle added Emerl.
-Sonic Advance 3 added Gemel/Gemerl/G-Mel (or whatever you call him).
-Sonic Rush added Blaze the Cat and Nega Robotnik/Eggman Nega.
-Shadow the Hedgehog added the Black Doom, the Black Arms, and the G.U.N. Commander
-Sonic Riders added Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross (and I hated just about all three of them with a passion. Wave was the only one I found to be some-what decent.)
-Next-Gen Sonic added Silver the Hedgehog, Princess Elise, Mephiles the Dark, and Iblis.
-Sonic Wildfire/Sonic & The Secret Rings added Erazor Djinn and Shahra (or whatever that genie lady was named, because I've never played the game before).
And I'm sure you get the picture.