CTR: Crash Team Racing (or simply Crash Team Racing) is the first racing game in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, released on the PlayStation in 1999. It was the 4th installment in the Crash Bandicoot series and the last one to be developed by Naughty Dog. CTR: Crash Team Racing became a 'Greatest Hits' title in 2000 in the US, a 'PlayStation, The Best' title in 2000 in Japan and a 'Platinum' title in Europe and the overall PAL region in late 2000. For the Japanese localization, the game was renamed Crash Bandicoot Racing.
CTR: Crash Team Racing is also available in the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita (PAL regions only) and PlayStation Portable. A remake for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, titled Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, was released on June 21, 2019.
In the game's story, an egotistical space alien by the name of Nitros Oxide comes to Earth and challenges Crash Bandicoot, his friends and foes to a racing competition before facing himself, threatening to turn the world into a concrete parking lot if he wins.
Story[]
Crash Bandicoot, his friends and foes are preparing to enter a kart racing tournament. Unfortunately, a space alien named Nitros Oxide travels from far out space to Earth and offers a challenge to its inhabitants. He claims to be the fastest racer in the entire galaxy, who travels the stars looking for creatures to test his skill. Nitros Oxide challenges them to a game that he calls "Survival of the Fastest" and explains the rules: Oxide races against the best racer on Earth. If Oxide wins, he will turn the entire globe into a concrete parking lot and make Earth's inhabitants his slaves forever, but if Earth's driver wins, Oxide promises to leave the "miserable little rock" alone. He then exits his spaceship and flies down to Earth's surface, where the racers are getting ready for the tournament. Coco uses her laptop to modify her kart, while Pura rests next to her. Tiny tries to put a screw on his kart's engine, but drops it and proceeds to wreck his kart in frustration. Polar takes his time reading a book called "How to Drive", which is upside down. Dingodile unsuccessfully tries to repair his kart's engine, which blows up in his face. Doctor Neo Cortex uses some sort of ray and shoots it at his kart to improve it, while laughing maniacally. Meanwhile, Crash is fast asleep.
To race Oxide, Earth's racer needs to prove their worth by collecting all 16 Trophies (four at a time) and then race and beat Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, Komodo Joe and Pinstripe Potoroo to earn four Boss Keys. Finally, when Earth's racer has accomplished this task, Oxide challenges the driver to the race for the fate of the planet. Earth's racer is victorious, but although Oxide says that he would leave Earth alone, he declares that Earth's racer can never claim they're the fastest unless they collect all the Relics and race Oxide again.
After collecting the 20 CTR Tokens and winning the five Gem Cups, the Earth's racer confronts Oxide again with all 18 Time Relics, and this time they race for the title. In the end, the Earth's racer is the winner and is declared the fastest. Oxide admits defeat and finally leaves Earth for good; heading home to Gasmoxia, and promising to never return.
Gameplay[]
The gameplay in Crash Team Racing is very similar to other kart racing video games like Mario Kart. Here, players choose a character from the Crash Bandicoot series and they must compete against the other racers on various racetracks. During a race, drivers can pick up Power-Ups from the ? Crates and use them to wreak havoc on their opponents or aid themselves a little. There are also Fruit Crates that contain Wumpa Fruit in which collecting them makes a racer's kart go faster. And if all ten Wumpa Fruit are collected, the racer's Power-Ups will be Juiced Up, making them more powerful.
A crucial maneuver in Crash Team Racing is the Drift/Power Slide. The driver executes the slide by holding down one of the shoulder buttons to perform a controllable hop (mainly for specific jumps) and steer left or right just upon nearly landing to initiate a drifting slide that reduces their kart's traction for a corner clearing turn but steering too much during a drift/power slide causes oversteer, and the driver's kart will spin out of control briefly.
In many kart racers, drifts are normally used to clear corners and trigger a turbo boost upon releasing the drift. However, the main distinction with CTR is the ability to perform the turbos mid-drift instead of at the end of one. While drifting, a turbo meter on the lower-right corner of the screen fills up and goes from green to red. At the same time, the exhaust gas from the driver's kart turns black. Pressing the opposite free shoulder button unleashes a turbo, with another one being possible to unleash up to 2 extra times for a total of 3 turbos in a single drift (where kart racers of other kinds normally involve holding the drift for as long as possible to level up the turbo).
Drivers that drift well can execute 3 perfectly timed turbo boosts in a row mid-drift if the gauge is nearly full and in the red zone each time (green earlier turbos result in less potent turbos unleashed), with the third boost being more powerful than the previous two. If the user delays too long during the drift however to trigger a drift turbo, the kart back-fires and the rest of the drift is unable to build up anymore turbos until the driver starts up another one. Drifts can be cut short at nearly anytime if by releasing the held-down shoulder button to start another drift right away in the desired/required direction if need be.
Aside from executing drift/power slide turbo boosts, speed boosts can also be obtained by either traveling over turbo pads (each turbo pad on each course has various levels output), or gathering hang time when leaping over gaps in the track via the aforementioned hopping mechanic (which can also go into a drift upon landing if the chosen shoulder button is held down) which again is controllable to be able to angle the kart in certain ways (using the brake to turn while in midair at any point is an advanced technique that can turn corners tightly without losing any speed). The longer the player is in the air from any jump, the bigger the turbo boost will be when the kart lands, even though jumping turbos tend to have the least overall output vs. other forms.
As a result, advanced levels of play involve chaining drift boosts and all forms of other boosts wherever and whenever on the track, to "reserve" their overall output to make a singular encompassing turbo boost last as long as possible throughout a course so long as the user/driver isn't impeded by boundaries or weapons. Hopping continuously is another advanced technique that helps carry the momentum of a kart forward to keep outputting speed, along other things. While lower level races do not require as much extensive turbo stacking to build up reserves, higher level races and overall top levels of play heavily rely on stacking up turbo reserves at any given juncture.
Racing Modes[]
Adventure Mode[]
- Adventure Mode is the single player portion of the game. First, players must choose one of the eight starting racers: Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex, Tiny Tiger, Coco Bandicoot, Doctor N. Gin, Dingodile, Polar, and Pura. Depending what racer is chosen, either Aku Aku or Uka Uka tutors the player. The player is then dropped in the starting area N. Sanity Beach. Players must race through all events and win to unlock the final event against Nitros Oxide. Players can earn a variety of awards to unlock new content for racing and show off their times to friends.
The different awards are:
- Trophies
- Trophies are obtained by finishing in 1st place in a trophy race. Collect all four trophies in each area to open up the boss garage for that area. After gaining a trophy from one race, another one will open (with exception of starting with 2 open when you first enter an area).
- Boss Keys
- Boss races are unlocked after obtaining all four trophies in one area. Boss Keys are obtained by beating the Boss of each area. The player must beat the four bosses (Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, Komodo Joe and Pinstripe Potoroo) and collect their keys in order to race Nitros Oxide.
- Relics
- Relic races are unlocked after beating the area boss. Relics are obtained by scoring the lowest elapsed time in a solo relic race by smashing Time Crates. These Time Crates freeze the clock for the amount of seconds shown on the box (1, 2 or 3 seconds). If the player manages to break all the Time Crates, a "Perfect" bonus is awarded, which decreases the final time by 10 seconds.
- There are three types of relics: Sapphire, Gold and Platinum. Sapphire is the easiest to obtain; Platinum which is the hardest, requires the fastest and lowest time.
- After earning all 18 relics, the player can then face Nitros Oxide again for an alternate ending.
- CTR Tokens
- CTR Tokens are unlocked after beating the area boss. There are 20 tokens which come in 5 different colors (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and Purple). Red, Green, Blue and Yellow Tokens are obtained by finishing in 1st place in a token race, much like a trophy race. However, this time the player must also collect the 3 letters 'C', 'T' and 'R' in addition. The letters are often hidden away or in hard to reach places, meaning the player must go out of their way to grab the letters. The Purple Tokens are awarded for beating the Crystal Bonus Rounds by collecting 20 Crystals within a certain time.
- Gems
- Gem Cups are unlocked after winning four CTR Tokens of the same color. These are played similar to the cups in Arcade mode, where players are awarded points across 4 tracks, with the winner being the one with the most points at the end. Winning a Gem unlocks a character, corresponding to the Gem Color:
- Red unlocks Ripper Roo,
- Green unlocks Papu Papu,
- Blue unlocks Komodo Joe,
- Yellow unlocks Pinstripe Potoroo,
- Purple unlocks Fake Crash.
- Gem Cups are unlocked after winning four CTR Tokens of the same color. These are played similar to the cups in Arcade mode, where players are awarded points across 4 tracks, with the winner being the one with the most points at the end. Winning a Gem unlocks a character, corresponding to the Gem Color:
Time Trial[]
Time Trial is a single player mode where the player races against the clock to get the best time. If the player gets a fast enough time, he/she can challenge N. Tropy's ghosts. The player has unlocked the right to race him when he says, "You think you're fast, eh? Well, let's see if you can beat my fastest time on this track!" Upon defeating all of his ghosts, N. Tropy is then unlocked as a playable character. After beating N. Tropy, the player can then challenge N. Oxide ghosts. When the player beats all of Oxide's ghosts, the player will unlock the Naughty Dog scrapbook in the main menu.
Arcade[]
Allows the player to quickly race on a selection of tracks against a selection of opponents with up to two players. Players can race on a single track or a racing cup in which players race over four tracks for the highest total score.
Cup | Tracks |
---|---|
Wumpa | Crash Cove, Tiger Temple, Blizzard Bluff and Coco Park |
Crystal | Roo's Tubes, Dingo Canyon, Dragon Mines and Sewer Speedway |
Nitro | Mystery Caves, Papu's Pyramid, Cortex Castle and Tiny Arena |
Crash | Polar Pass, N. Gin Labs, Hot Air Skyway and Slide Coliseum |
Each cup has three difficulties, with Easy being available from the start. To unlock the higher difficulties you must complete each cup in each difficulty. Doing so will also unlock further maps for the Battle mode.
Vs.[]
Up to 4 players compete on a chosen track or across 4 tracks for points. There are no computer-controlled racers on Vs.
Some graphic details and textures are missing in Vs. mode, such as the mushrooms near the end in Roo's Tubes, making it easier to take some shortcuts.
Battle[]
Up to 4 players compete in a "Battle Arena" against each other using weapons scattered around the area. Players can compete in teams or have a "free-for-all", to either deplete all of the other players' lives to zero, reach a certain score first, or gain the most points before the match is over. There are no computer-controlled racers in Battle and items available in the boxes can be selected during the startup to include or exclude certain items. Parking Lot, Lab Basement, and The North Bowl are exclusive to this mode and must be unlocked in Arcade mode.
Characters[]
There are 16 racers total; 15 of which playable. The player starts the game with 8 characters by default, and has to unlock the other 7 playable characters.
Character | Difficulty and Stats | Unlock Condition | Mask | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Crash Bandicoot |
Intermediate | Speed: 2/6 Accel: 2/4 Turn: 3/4 |
Unlocked by default | Aku Aku |
Dr. Neo Cortex |
Speed: 2/6 Accel: 2/4 Turn: 3/4 |
Uka Uka | ||
Tiny Tiger |
Advanced | Speed: 6/6 Accel: 1/4 Turn: 1/4 | ||
Coco Bandicoot |
Intermediate | Speed: 4/6 Accel: 4/4 Turn: 2/4 |
Aku Aku | |
Dr. N. Gin |
Speed: 4/6 Accel: 4/4 Turn: 2/4 |
Uka Uka | ||
Dingodile |
Advanced | Speed: 6/6 Accel: 1/4 Turn: 1/4 | ||
Polar |
Beginner | Speed: 1/6 Accel: 3/4 Turn: 4/4 |
Aku Aku | |
Pura |
Speed: 1/6 Accel: 3/4 Turn: 4/4 | |||
Ripper Roo |
Speed: 1/6 Accel: 3/4 Turn: 4/4 |
Win the Red Gem Cup in Adventure Mode or with a code | Uka Uka | |
Papu Papu |
Advanced | Speed: 6/6 Accel: 1/4 Turn: 1/4 |
Win the Green Gem Cup in Adventure Mode or with a code | |
Komodo Joe |
Intermediate | Speed: 2/6 Accel: 2/4 Turn: 3/4 |
Win the Blue Gem Cup in Adventure Mode or with a code | |
Pinstripe |
Intermediate | Speed: 4/6 Accel: 4/4 Turn: 2/4 |
Win the Yellow Gem Cup in Adventure Mode or with a code | |
Fake Crash |
Intermediate | Speed: 2/6 Accel: 2/4 Turn: 3/4 |
Win the Purple Gem Cup in Adventure Mode or with a code | |
N. Tropy |
Advanced | Speed: 6/6 Accel: 1/4 Turn: 1/4 |
Beat all of N. Tropy's times in Time Trial or with a code | |
Penta Penguin |
Intermediate ¹ Beginner ² |
Speed: 6/6 ¹ — 1/6 ² Accel: 4/4 ¹ — 4/4 ² Turn: 4/4 ¹ — 3/4 ² |
On the Main Menu, hold and , then input the following buttons: ↓ → ↓ ← ↑ | Aku Aku ³ |
Nitros Oxide |
Intermediate | Speed: 2/6 Accel: 2/4 Turn: 3/4 |
Not Playable (normally) / Playable (via GameShark code on the Main Menu) | Uka Uka |
- ¹ These stats apply to the PAL or NTSC-J version of the game.
- ² These stats apply to the NTSC-U version of the game.
- ³ In the NTSC-U version, the Invincibility Mask icon when playing as Penta is shown to be Uka Uka, but Aku Aku will still show up when used.
Power-Ups[]
Power-Ups can be received when a player runs into a ? Crate and can be used either as a weapon against opposing racers or as a temporary boost for the user itself. These same Power-Ups increase in power when "Juiced Up", which will happen once the player collects ten Wumpa Fruit during a race.
Power-Up | Description | |
---|---|---|
Normal | Juiced Up | |
N. Brio's Beaker |
Can be placed on the track, or thrown ahead of the player. Will cause a player who hits it to spin out. Can also explode if in the blast radius of another explosion. | (Red): Now the beaker is a poison. After a player hits it and spins out of control, a black storm cloud will appear over their head temporarily and will slow down the players kart. If the player holds an item, it will be shuffled for a new one. |
Explosive Crate |
Place the TNT Crate onto the track and if a player runs onto it, the box lands on their head. After a three seconds countdown the crate will explode causing the player to tumble and crash. If players can hop enough times before the TNT explodes, it will bounce off and land at the same location, exploding on impact. Will also explode if in the blast radius of another explosion. | Instead of a TNT, the crate is now a Nitro Crate and will explode on impact if another player drives into it. |
Bowling Bomb |
Roll these bombs at karts in front of or behind of you to make them fall into a tumbling crash. They only roll straight ahead or straight back so aim carefully before release. The bomb can be detonated early by pressing the item button again. Can be picked up either as a single item or as a group of three. |
The bomb has a bigger blast radius, which is useful for sending up to three or more players flying. |
Tracking Missile |
Fires a tracking missile locking onto the closest driver in front of you. If it hits, the enemy kart will be sent into a tumbling crash. When you are being tracked by one, a cross-hair appears on the back of your kart as the missile hunts you down. Can be picked up either as a single item or as a group of three. |
The missile moves faster and is more accurate. |
Power Shield |
The green shield protects the player from being hit by a weapon for a few seconds once activated. The shield will disappear after a few seconds, or when a weapon or other driver makes physical contact. The player can fire the shield like a bomb at another player. | The shield is now blue and lasts indefinetely until hit by a weapon or fired like a bomb at another player. |
Turbo |
Gives you a quick burst of speed. Can also be used to squash enemies and bounce off them. | The boost lasts longer and is slightly faster. |
Invincibility Mask |
Your kart is now protected from all attacks and obstacles while also providing you with a speed boost. You are also able to fall off the track without losing any Wumpa Fruit. | The mask will be active for longer. |
Exclusive[]
Power-Up | Description | |
---|---|---|
Normal | Juiced Up | |
N. Tropy Clock (Only for races.) |
Usage of the clock will make other racers spin out and slow their movement for several seconds. Also temporarily disables the collection and use of power-ups. | Its effect lasts longer. |
Warp Orb (Only for races.) |
A giant blue orb targets the player in first place and will hit any other racers who are in the way as the orb makes its way to them. | It will now target and hit all racers ahead of you on the track. |
Super Engine (Only for battles.) |
Provides a constant turbo for a few seconds. | Provides constant turbo speed for even longer. |
Invisibility (Only for battles.) |
You cannot be seen by other players and missiles cannot track you. However, you can still be hit! | Lasts longer. |
Adventure Mode Tracks[]
Area | Track | Requirements | Rewards | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N. Sanity Beach | Crash Cove | None | ||||
Roo's Tubes | ||||||
Mystery Caves | ||||||
Sewer Speedway | ||||||
Ripper Roo's Challenge | ||||||
Skull Rock | ||||||
Gem Stone Valley | Slide Coliseum | |||||
Turbo Track | + + + + | |||||
N. Oxide's Challenges | First | |||||
Final | ||||||
Red Gem Cup | ||||||
Green Gem Cup | ||||||
Blue Gem Cup | ||||||
Yellow Gem Cup | ||||||
Purple Gem Cup | ||||||
The Lost Ruins | Coco Park | |||||
Tiger Temple | ||||||
Papu's Pyramid | ||||||
Dingo Canyon | ||||||
Papu Papu's Challenge | ||||||
Rampage Ruins | ||||||
Glacier Park | Blizzard Bluff | |||||
Dragon Mines | ||||||
Polar Pass | ||||||
Tiny Arena | ||||||
Komodo Joe's Challenge | ||||||
Rocky Road | ||||||
Citadel City | N. Gin Labs | |||||
Cortex Castle | ||||||
Hot Air Skyway | ||||||
Oxide Station | ||||||
Pinstripe's Challenge | ||||||
Nitro Court |
Gem Cups[]
- Red Gem Cup is composed of Crash Cove, Mystery Caves, Blizzard Bluff, and Papu's Pyramid.
- Green Gem Cup is composed of Roo's Tubes, Coco Park, Polar Pass, and Cortex Castle.
- Blue Gem Cup is composed of Tiger Temple, Sewer Speedway, Dragon Mines and N. Gin Labs.
- Yellow Gem Cup is composed of Dingo Canyon, Tiny Arena, Hot Air Skyway and Oxide Station.
- Purple Gem Cup is composed of Roo's Tubes, Papu's Pyramid, Dragon Mines and Hot Air Skyway.
- This cup features the four bosses of the game competing without their infinite items.
Quotes[]
See: List of quotes in Crash Team Racing
Reception[]
Crash Team Racing received critical acclaim. Official PlayStation Magazine described Crash Team Racing as "the game that made kart racing cool" and proclaimed that "nothing has ever matched its quality." Electronic Gaming Month noted that the game was "heavily inspired by Mario Kart, but still an amazing multiplayer racer." Doug Perry of IGN stated that the game was "rock solid" in playability and graphics, but was critical of "the insanely capitalistic smile of Crash." Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot called the game "a great Mario Kart clone", and that it succeeded where similar games like Mega Man Battle & Chase, Bomberman Fantasy Race, Diddy Kong Racing, Chocobo Racing and Mario Kart had failed. Johnny Liu of Game Revolution concluded that despite the fact that the game "doesn't add much to the tired genre, it manages to do everything well."
The game's controls were well received. The D-Pad Destroyer of GamePro praised the controls as "nearly-perfect" and explained that "the transparent controls allow you to concentrate on racing and blasting your opponents, and so the races are faster, more fluid and more fun." Johnny Liu of Game Revolution concluded that the controls "feel very natural, with an emphasis on maintaining speed rather than fighting lousy controls." However, Joe Ottoson of Allgame ("All Game Guide" at the time) said that the inability to reconfigure the controls was "the only real drawback to Crash's presentation."
The graphics of the game were positively received. The D-Pad Destroyer of GamePro, while noting that the graphics were not too complex, cited the "cartoony look and the ingenious use of textures and colors" as high points in the graphics department. Doug Perry of IGN commended the "sharp looking" environments as "clean and fully formed" and the characters are "full of funny animations and cleanly designed". Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot said that the environments "are reasonably large, and they convey the cartoon-like attitude of the game very nicely." Johnny Liu of Game Revolution stated that the graphics were "smooth and seem to push the PlayStation's limits."
Critics expressed mixed opinions of the game's audio. The D-Pad Destroyer of GamePro said that the "whimsical" background music is "quite enjoyable" and the character sound bites are "varied enough to avoid becoming annoying." Doug Perry of IGN had a more mixed take, saying that the "classic bouncy, xylophone-heavy beat" is "not necessarily great", and that after a few courses, "you either stop hearing it, or the incessant simplicity of it makes you want to cry or pull your hair out". On the subject of the voice acting, he concluded that there is "nothing really that cute, clever or memorable" in the game, and noted that Crash's voice in the game is extremely similar to that of Luigi from the Mario Kart series. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot wrote that while the music and sound effects "push the game's cartoon theme," the themes were not too "over the top" or incessant. Johnny Liu of Game Revolution passed the music off as "standard kitschy fare" and added that while the sound effects "add to the cartoon quality of the game", some of the character voices were unsatisfactory. Joe Ottoson of Allgame noted that the characters "are all quite vocal", and the music "sets off the whimsical mood nicely".
Crash Team Racing has sold over 1.71 million units in Europe, 2.64 million units in the United States and just under 500,000 units in Japan. As a result of its success, the game was re-released for the Sony Greatest Hits line-up in 2000 and for the Platinum Range on January 12, 2001. An indirect sequel titled Crash Nitro Kart was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and N-Gage and was the first game in the Crash Bandicoot series to feature full motion video.
Gallery[]
See: CTR: Crash Team Racing/Gallery
Names in Other Languages[]
Language | Name |
---|---|
Japanese | クラッシュバンディクーレーシング Kurasshu Bandikū Rēshingu |
This game was developed in English and was officially localized into Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
Cast[]
Voice actor(ess) | Character |
---|---|
Chip Chinery | Crash Bandicoot |
Brendan O'Brien † | N. Gin Tiny Tiger Pinstripe Potoroo Crash Bandicoot (one of the woahs) |
Hynden Walch | Coco Bandicoot |
David Anthony Pizzuto † | Nitros Oxide Komodo Joe Papu Papu Dingodile |
Mel Winkler † | Aku Aku |
Clancy Brown | Neo Cortex Uka Uka |
Michael Connor | Fake Crash |
Michael Ensign | N. Tropy |
Trivia[]
- This is the first game in the series, not counting the Ezone ones, not to be a platformer.
- According to the developer, Bob Rafei, Mario Kart was a huge inspiration and the developers at Naughty Dog were huge fans, though they also did work to ensure the game would stand on its own.[2]
- Pura and Polar were originally meant to be one racer, and Komodo Moe was meant to appear with his brother Komodo Joe, also as one racer.
- Early in the development of the game, Naughty Dog made a replica of Crescent Island from Diddy Kong Racing to see if they could make a racing track of that size on the PlayStation.
- Ripper Roo was originally going to speak normally in the game. He would say, "Are you crazy enough to race me? I should face Oxide in the big race!", with a high pitched voice. The final release just had his usual manic laughter but had subtitles included so it was possible to know what he was saying.
- However, without subtitles in general for the Japanese version, Ripper Roo speaks normally like nearly the rest of the cast.
- Nitros Oxide was going to be a playable character, but was scrapped due to console limitations. He can be played using a GameShark code. He has voice recordings and a victory dance on the podium programmed into the game.
- Nitros Oxide was originally another evil scientist with a more standard human appearance. During development, the story was that he was trying to make the world faster and faster until the end of time, because of his obsession with speed. While further details about the original story are scarce, an old comic suggests Oxide would use a machine called the X Device.
- Some tracks have the same names as a few real locations, likely out of coincidence. These are Tiger Temple, as the Theravada Buddhist temple in the Sai Yok District of Thailands's Kanchanaburi Province, Mystery Caves, as the Forestville Mystery State Park in Minnesota, and Glacier Park, as one of the seven national parks located in British Columbia and Dragon Mines.
- The female bandicoots who hand out prizes, Ami, Isabella, Liz and Megumi, are named after real-life people who were involved in the Crash Bandicoot games, as demonstrated in the credits.
- Trophies and achievements for the relics in the N. Sane Trilogy are references to the original Crash Team Racing commercials that aired in 1999.
- Though the karts are largely identical besides their color, the steering wheels vary greatly in shape and size, which is most noticeable in their width. For example, Tiny has a very small steering wheel, since his long arms can easily reach it. Penta, on the other hand, has an abnormally wide one in order for his flippers to be able to hold it.
- Though Chip Chinery is the voice actor for Crash Bandicoot in this game, one of the "whoa" sound effects was recycled from previous games, which was provided by Brendan O'Brien.