Dragon Mines

Dragon Mines is the tenth race course in Crash Team Racing and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. It is raced on in the blue Gem Cup (as well as Sewer Speedway, Tiger Temple and N. Gin Labs) and the purple (with Roo's Tubes, Papu's Pyramid and Hot Air Skyway) Gem Cup.

It is Komodo Joe's home track, being the track he races against the player on in his boss race. In Adventure Mode, the course is located in Glacier Park.

Description
"There's not a whole lot of room in this course, and it can be quite dark in places so keep your eyes open! Hazards include mine trains and a pond which is not shallow enough to cross through the middle of."

- Crash Team Racing Prima strategy guide

The track takes place deep underground within the Komodo Brothers' gold mines. Minecarts roll around in several places, and an underground pool can be found in one cavern. In Nitro-Fueled, the pool is home to the hoard of a massive fire-breathing Dragon.

The track begins with an immediate downhill plunge before turning to the right, then curving to the left in the room containing the underground lake. The track continues with another curve to the left, intersecting with the track of a minecart. Players can go off road and follow this minecart track for a significant shortcut.

Back on the standard route, racers are faced with a clockwise upwards spiral, requiring U-turning to take smoothly. After is a brief straight section with another minecart hazard and a boost pad as the track angles to the right, sloping uphill. The track then curves to the left, returning to the finish line. Alternatively, racers can cut across the rough ground on the left for a small shortcut.

CTR Challenge

 * C: The C is easily obtained, found on the shore of the underground pool.
 * T: To get the T, the player must follow the spiral and then hop off the side near the top to obtain the letter where it floats in the air.
 * R: The R can be found in the straight section just after the spiral, just behind one of the support beams in the middle.

Trivia

 * Originally, the lights of the mine carts in this track used to be red, instead of white.
 * According to an interview with Beenox's co-studio head and creative director Thomas Wilson, the backstory given to this track in the Nitro-Fueled version is that a mining company has dug so deep that they stumbled upon a dragon's treasure.
 * The dragon from Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex makes a cameo appearance as a guardian of the treasure.
 * Thomas also mentioned that the animation of the miners in the background is synced to the rhythm of the soundtrack.

Minas Dragón Mines Dragon