Crash Bandicoot features many shout outs - both visual and aural (some of which are homages or outright pastiches) - to movies and other aspects of popular culture.
- Crash of the Titans contains several, beginning with Clash of the Titans, and including Planet of the Apes (1968), Minority Report, The Lord of the Rings, Brokeback Mountain, Star Wars, Invader Zim, Braveheart, Gremlins, Lost in Space, Star Trek, Pop Idol/American Idol, The Matrix, the World of Warcraft meme Leeroy Jenkins, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, MySpace and many others. The portable version has a Titan called Jawslehoff. and another one called Psycho-Mandrake.
- Crash: Mind Over Mutant continues this trend, with references to Dragon Ball Z, Michael Jackson, LOLCats, 300, G.I. Joe, South Park, Street Fighter, and many others.
- The earlier games in the series tend to have shout outs in some of the level titles. Examples include "Tomb Wader" "Sphynxinator", "Weathering Heights", "Orange Asphalt
'' and "Smokey and the Bandicoot". - Crash Nitro Kart features Cortex's line "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Tiny..."
- One of the promo images for Warped, featuring a shades-wearing Crash and Coco on a motorbike, with one of Crash's eyes glowing red, is a blatant reference to the Terminator franchise.
- The yellow mech that Crash uses in the space station levels of Wrath of Cortex bears a close resemblance to the one used in Aliens.
- The cutscene after the Boss Battle against Tiny Tiger in The Huge Adventure has Uka Uka referring to Cortex's minions as "three of your stooges".
- After Willie's plan is exposed in Tag Team Racing:
- The levels in the karting games include "Clockwork Wumpa" and "Jungle Boogie".
- Several lines in Tag Team Racing are shout outs to something:
- One of Von Clutch's racing lines is "Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn!"
- Cortex: "Can you sense the antici... pation?"
- More fun with Cortex: "Revenge is a dish best served with fava beans."
- When starting his vehicle after a full stop, Cortex sometimes says "1.8 Gigawatts of power!"
- Pasadena sometimes says "Striking me down will only make me stronger."
- Crunch: "I burninated that chump!"
- N. Gin: "Don't fear the reaper. (In a Christopher Walken voice) I need more cowbell. (Back in his normal voice) I DON'T HAVE A COWBELL!"
- The sledgehammer wielding enemies in "Diggin' it" and "Bee Afraid" wear red clothing, blue jumpers, and wield a brown hammer. Definitely more than a passing resemblance to Mario. Especially in the N. Sane Trilogy, where their red clothing is no longer checkered.
- Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled gave Tawna and the Trophy Girls/Nitro Squad a series of "Motorsport" skins, with victory animations that could be homages to Street Fighter characters:
- Ami performs a series of uppercuts, one adorned with a green energy effect, which could reference the Shoryuken.
- Megumi performs a series of kicks, and the fact that she already has her hair in buns could be an homage to Chun-Li.
- Motorsport Isabella's victory animation has her perform a small Kamehame Hadoken.
- The classic games have some music references tucked away inside of their level names.
