Best Crash Team Racing characters: Who are the top racers in Nitro Fueled?

Even though the stats for each racer were visibly displayed in the original game, there's always been some disparity between the best Crash Team Racing characters. Is N. Tropy better than Nitros Oxide? Is Penta Penguin really the fastest character? In Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled, the original roster of characters makes a return alongside a bunch of pals, but which are the best Crash Team Racing characters in Nitro Fueled?

Best Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled characters

The original Crash Team Racing had unique stats for every single character, which meant that a couple of characters were considered the outright best due to their top speed and turning capabilities. This isn't really the case in Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled, because despite there being 26 characters on launch and more coming later down the line, there's only actually four sets of stats for them.

Best Crash Team Racing characters: Polar

In the beginner category, every single character has the same stats: 3 Speed, 4 Acceleration, and 7 Turning. These characters are great for anyone who's new to Crash Team Racing and kart racers in general, and from the start there's just Polar and Pura available, so we can recommend them if you're a newbie.

Best Crash Team Racing characters: Crash Bandicoot

The intermediate category of racers is where you can find two different sets of stats: 5 Speed, 5 Acceleration, and 5 Turning, or 4 Speed, 7 Acceleration, and 3 Turning. From the start of the game, Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex have the former while Coco Bandicoot has the latter, and this is down to personal preference; I personally prefer playing with the 5/5/5 characters here, because Acceleration isn't as important as the other two.

Best Crash Team Racing characters: Tiny Tiger

Finally, you have the advanced class. Tiny Tiger and Dingodile are the only two characters that you can use from the get-go, and every racer here has 7 Speed, 3 Acceleration, and 2 Turning. These are the best characters when you become a Crash Team Racing master, because speed is the best attribute by far and once you can power slide endlessly round every course, having the highest speed is vital.

To actually answer the question on the best Crash Team Racing characters, it's anybody in the advanced category: Tiny Tiger, Dingodile, Penta Penguin, Papu Papu, Crunch, Big Norm, Zem, and N. Tropy. Unless some characters have hidden stats we haven't found out about yet (we'll update this guide if they do!), there isn't one character who is "meta" or one you're guaranteed to see in every online race. Yes, you can unlock Penta Penguin with one of the many Crash Team Racing cheats, but he's not quite as broken as he once was.

Crash Team Racing review | Crash Team Racing tips | Crash Team Racing shortcuts | Crash Team Racing cheats | Crash Team Racing N. Tropy | Crash Team Racing Grand Prix

Ford James

Give me a game and I will write every "how to" I possibly can or die trying. When I'm not knee-deep in a game to write guides on, you'll find me hurtling round the track in F1, flinging balls on my phone in Pokemon Go, pretending to know what I'm doing in Football Manager, or clicking on heads in Valorant.

Latest in Racing
Wreckfest 2
Devs behind beloved destruction-focused racing game Wreckfest launch the sequel in early access with a trailer full of physics glitches and fatal error messages
A decorated purple car speeding head-on down a road in Toyko Xtreme Racer
Tokyo Xtreme Racer is a novel throwback to classic PS2 racing games like Midnight Club, and I can't get enough of it
Rivals Hover League appearing in the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2025
The spirit of Burnout heads to the future as Rivals Hover League brings destruction derby to the skies
Japanese Drift Master appearing in FGS Live From GDC
After a years-long way, this Initial D-inspired open-world racing game is now just around the corner
Bionic Bay appearing at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2025
Check out Bionic Bay's frantic physics fueled racing in this new Future Games Show trailer
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Nintendo knows you're waiting for Mario Kart 9, but it still wants you to run a million laps in Mario Kart 8 first
Latest in Guides
Assassin's Creed Shadows Naoe wearing black kosode
How to acquire a kosode in Assassin's Creed Shadows and should you choose red or black?
A character's face in horror game REPO.
Best REPO mods to improve your matches with more players and new monsters
Assassin's Creed Shadows Mitsumune and Naoe
How to find Mitsumune in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows engravings
Best Assassin’s Creed Shadows Engravings for all weapons and armor
Assassin's Creed Shadows Naoe facing off against samurai warrior on red bridge
Does Assassin’s Creed Shadows have New Game Plus?
FC 25
FC 25 Dreamchasers tracker and full UEFA promo guide