Nitros Oxide

''"Get ready to race for the fate of your planet!" '' - Nitros Oxide; Crash Team Racing

Nitros Oxide (Nitrous Oxide in Crash Nitro Kart) is an alien from the planet Gasmoxia who serves as the main antagonist of Crash Team Racing. He first appeared in Crash Team Racing and his latest appearance was in Crash Twinsanity as a cameo. He is a very sore loser, and has a short temper.

Crash Team Racing
Nitros Oxide was first seen in Crash Team Racing when he came to Earth to challenge the planet's people to a racing contest he called Survival of the Fastest. He said that if earth's inhabitants won the contest then he would leave earth alone, but if he won he would turn Earth into a giant concrete parking lot and enslave the inhabitants of the planet. Earth's champion racer was able to defeat Oxide and he went back to Gasmoxia in shame. As stated in the credits, after years of therapy, Nitros Oxide began to race again, but he chose the unicycle as a vehicle and wound up in a grotesque accident. His hovercraft is Dark Green and has maxed-out stats like Velo does.

Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, he appeared again as the final boss. He was on his way home to Gasmoxia until running into this planet, and noticing Crash and his friends. He would fight you in his space craft and then land in a world that much looked like the Futuristic levels of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, in which you must stop him in a challenge like the Ballistic levels.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
When the logos are shown at the start of the game, you can see him flying through space, probably flying back to Gasmoxia.

Crash Nitro Kart
Later he was seen in Crash Nitro Kart racing for Emperor Velo the 27th on Team Oxide, along side Zem, Zam and Velo. After a unicycling accident on Gasmoxia, Oxide returned to get revenge on Crash and his friends, bringing his allies Zam and Zem into the frey. This was his first playable appearance (without the use of a cheat device).

Crash Twinsanity
In Crash Twinsanity, he appears as a cameo, and is one of the villains at Crash's "birthday party", arriving in his hovercraft from Crash Team Racing. He appears to have two different shades of green on his skin and his snout is longer and has bumps on it.

Personality
Nitrous Oxide is very brave and he actually is the fastest racer in the galaxy. Like other villains in the Crash Bandicoot series he also has a strong interest in world domination. Since he was a little alien he had an obsessive love for speed. This explains why he deserves to rule the Earth for his fabulous talent of racing.

Although his age is unknown, he hints after his second defeat in CTR that his slowness is due to his old age.

Appearances

 * Crash Team Racing (boss)
 * Crash Bash (boss)
 * Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (cameo)
 * Crash Nitro Kart (starter, but unlockable in GBA version)
 * Crash Twinsanity (cameo)
 * Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (playable)

Trivia

 * In Crash Team Racing his name is Nitros Oxide, while in Crash Nitro Kart his name is Nitrous Oxide.
 * According to Oxide, he is the reason why there's no life on Mars. He raced against the inhabitants of Mars before he raced the Earth and Mars lost, leaving it as a desolate, barren planet(this is said in scrapped dialogue).
 * While facing Oxide in CTR, he had the weapons of the previous Race bosses, except Ripper Roo; He uses Papu Papu's Green and Red Beakers, Komodo Joe's TNT/Nitro Crates, and Pinstripe's Bombs (shot backwards).
 * His name is a pun on Nitrous Oxide, which fittingly is used as an oxidizer gas in Combustion Engine systems, resulting in sudden bursts of speed apon "Spraying". It is also known as "laughing gas" in medical applications.
 * When you attack Nitros Oxide in Crash Team Racing, whilst in Adventure mode, instead of his kart flipping like any other characters kart, he spins around in circles unless you hit him with a bubble or bash him with Aku Aku or Uka Uka (using cheats).
 * There's a long running rumor that says you can unlock him by beating every one of his ghosts.
 * His theme when fighting him in Crash Bash is a mix of Dingodiles theme from warped.
 * In Crash Team Racing, Nitros Oxide had playable data, through hacking, the player could play as Oxide.