Dragon Mines

Dragon Mines (はぐるま トロッコこうざん lit. Gears and Trolleys Mines in Japanese) 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.

At the start of the race, the players go down a big hill, past an underground lake and stalagmites. Next, they encounter rails, where minecarts might hit them. After that, a spiral bridge is ascended. More minecarts are at the top, through a corridor. Players then arrive back at the starting line either by following a left curve, or by cutting across a dirt patch to save some time. It is possible to drive through the minecart route from before the spiral bridge to after but without protection or turbos, the player may get squashed.

In adventure mode, the course is located in the Glacier Park. It's also the boss stage of Komodo Joe.

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.

Mines Dragon