Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled has finally arrived, taking off with some real steam (nitro?) after being praised for its high skill ceiling and faithful track design/visuals. All of your favorite courses are here from both the original Crash Team Racing from the PS1 and Crash Nitro Kart on the PS2.
Out of the huge variety of courses in the game, it can be pretty tough to narrow down a list of ten favorites. While this list is certainly not definitive and is going vary from player to player, here are our picks for the ten best courses in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.
10 COCO PARK
Starting off this list is one of the prettiest courses, if not the prettiest, on this list: Coco Park. It is nigh-on impossible to drive around Coco Park without a smile on your face, especially if it pulls on the old nostalgia heartstrings as a player from way back in the day.
While it may not be the most interesting or fun track design of all of the courses on this list, the visuals and the awesome music more than make up for it.
9 CORTEX CASTLE
Another course from the original Crash Team Racing, Cortex Castle is one of the most difficult courses to perfect your performance on in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, but that doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic course.
Cortex Castle has a pretty unique and foreboding aesthetic, ranging from giant spiders spinning webs and landing on the course to giant blue stained glass windows featuring the mad scientist Cortex himself. Cortex Castle is a challenge worth mastering, if only to spend more time in the awesome course.
8 ANDROID ALLEY
A course from the later incarnation of the Crash racing universe, Android Alley yet again brings another pretty unique aesthetic. A futuristic cityscape, Android Alley is pretty firmly in the middle of the difficulty-curve of CTR Nitro-Fueled.
It's a bit more difficult than Coco Park, but not as challenging and twisting as courses like Tiny Arena. Android Alley has a beautiful atmosphere and a fun course design that allows you to keep a boost going for quite a while with relative ease.
7 ELECTRON AVENUE
A more neon-infused futuristic city than Android Alley, Electron Avenue is also comparable to it in difficulty level.
That opening drop in the course alone cements it as one of the most fun in the game, but the rest of the course is certainly solid enough to earn it a place on this list. The irritating electricity obstacles aside, this is one of the most enjoyable tracks in the game.
6 ASSEMBLY LANE
One of the tougher courses on this list, Assembly Lane shifts quite a lot in style throughout, from some more Tiny Arena-style dirt/mud ramps and turns, to sections that more resemble N. Gin Labs with ninety-degree turns and machinery.
Finally, it has a complex section all its own, with varying height levels and a small shortcut near the end. It can be a bit of a tough course, but once you've learned the layout well enough, you can keep a boost going for quite a long time.
5 METEOR GORGE
Speaking of keeping boosts going, Meteor Gorge is a course where keeping a permanent boost going is not only possible, but it's one of the easiest courses on which to accomplish this. In fact, there's a trophy/achievement for keeping a boost going for an entire lap, and this is one of the easiest courses to use to accomplish that.
It's nowhere near as long as a lot of other courses in Nitro-Fueled, but it definitely has one of the more fun layouts; a lot like a shorter version of Tiny Arena.
4 OXIDE STATION
The course in which you defeat the villain and finish the main portion of the Adventure Mode, Oxide Station is the traveling course that accompanies the villainous Nitros Oxide. It's one of the most stylistically original courses in the game, similar only to one other course recreated from Crash Nitro Kart.
It has quite a few long and winding curves, making it one of the only courses that's a bit difficult but doesn't include a series of ninety-degree turns. Mastering this course proves a bit of a challenge, but is somewhat necessary to beat Nitros Oxide in Adventure Mode.
3 SEWER SPEEDWAY
One of the only courses to present choices on the race course (that don't include shortcuts), Sewer Speedway is another beloved classic from the original Crash Team Racing.
With plenty of long curves, a ton of jumping opportunities, and somewhat difficult obstacles, Sewer Speedway seems to hit a perfect balance between difficulty and fun. It's also just the right length. All of this makes it a perfect middle-of-the-road choice to get your feet wet in the game.
2 N.GIN LABS
N.Gin Labs is another course that can have a bit of a high difficulty level at times, and has a bit of a lengthy drive-time. It looks unlike every other track in the game and boasts a totally unique track section, that being the boost-tunnel towards the middle of the course.
This is another one of those courses that just loves those ninety-degree turns, and throws them at you immediately after a couple jumps to throw you off. Overall though, it's a very fun course with cool obstacles and a great style.
1 TINY ARENA
Here we are. The greatest course in the game: Tiny Arena. Some would dispute this, sure, but Tiny Arena has just about the perfect track layout for Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.
The boost system is absolutely built for this amount of small turns and jumps, and there is no better feeling in this game than keeping a boost going for minutes on end in this course. Few other courses in this game reward learning the boost mechanics as well as this one, and it's an absolute blast to drive around in. Just be prepared for how long and winding it is.