Crash Team Racing (stylized as CTR: Crash Team Racing) is a 1999 kart racing game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fourth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series and the final Crash Bandicoot game to be developed by Naughty Dog. The game's story focuses on the efforts of Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex, and other ragtag team of characters in the Crash Bandicoot series, who must race against the egomaniacal Nitros Oxide to save the Earth from destruction. In the game, players can take control of one of fifteen Crash Bandicoot series characters, though only eight are available at first. During the races, offensive and speed boosting power-ups can be used to gain an advantage.
Crash Team Racing was met with critical acclaim upon release, being widely regarded as a highly polished and entertaining kart racing game that drew heavy inspiration from Nintendo's Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing. Critics praised its execution, technical achievements, and engaging gameplay, often arguing it surpassed its competitors in several areas despite its lack of originality. A successor, Crash Nitro Kart, was released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and N-Gage. A remaster of the game developed by Beenox, titled Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, was announced at The Game Awards 2018 and was released on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on June 21, 2019, by Activision.
Gameplay
200px|left|thumb|An example of a race in Crash Team Racing
Crash Team Racing is a kart racing game in which the player controls characters from the Crash Bandicoot series, kart racing on varied tracks to finish first. Naughty Dog began production on Crash Team Racing after the completion of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back; the game engine for Crash Team Racing was created at the same time Crash Bandicoot: Warped was produced. Development took place over the course of eight months on a budget of $2.4 million by a team of 16–18 staff. The characters of the game were designed by Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson, who designed the characters of the last three installments of the series. Bob Rafei led concept development, art direction, environment modeling and vertex lighting, cinematic animations and layouts. Nitros Oxide was originally a mad scientist obsessed with speed who plotted to speed up the entire world until the end of time. However, having exhausted human, animal, machine, and various combinations for Crash Bandicoot bosses in the past, it was decided to have Nitros Oxide be an otherworldly character. The original "speed up the world" plot is referenced in a promotional comic (written by Glenn Herdling and drawn by Neal Sternecky) featured in the Winter 2000 issue of Disney Adventures.
During the game's prototypical stage, the team built a replica of the "Crescent Island" course from Diddy Kong Racing to test whether a racetrack of the same scope and scale was possible on the PlayStation. To address the complication of potentially having up to 64 kart tires on a four-player split-screen, programmer Greg Omi developed a method of rendering the tires as camera-based two-dimensional sprites. The turbo system that gives the player boosts of speed during power slides and by gathering hang time was added to make Crash Team Racing feel more interactive and involving than older kart-racing games. while Clancy Brown voiced Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka, and Brendan O'Brien voiced Doctor N. Gin, Tiny Tiger and Pinstripe Potoroo. Additional voices were provided by David A. Pizzuto, Mel Winkler, Michael Ensign, Hynden Walch, Billy Pope and Michael Connor.
Crash Team Racing went into the alpha stage of development in August 1999, and the beta stage on September. It was released on October 19, 1999, in North America, and in December 1999 in Europe. NASCAR vehicle No. 98 was given a custom Crash Bandicoot-themed paint job in promotion of the game. A playable demonstration was included on a promotional compilation disc released by Pizza Hut on November 14, 1999.
Reception
Crash Team Racing received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Sales
In the first full month of its release, Crash Team Racing was the third highest selling PlayStation game and tenth best-selling home and handheld console game in the United States. It remained on the best selling home and handheld console game list the following month. Overall, the game sold 1.9 million units in the United States and over 300,000 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.
Legacy
The success of Crash Team Racing, combined with that of Mario Kart, inspired a kart racing game boom in the early 2000s; Jason Rubin noted that Naughty Dog was pitched wrestling-themed kart games twice by different publishers. A follow-up titled Crash Nitro Kart was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and N-Gage and was the first game in the Crash Bandicoot series to feature full motion video.