History Trivia / CrashTeamRacing

** According to an interview with Naughty Dog's vice president, Evan Wells, Polar and Pura were originally going to be sitting in one kart as a single racer, as were Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe. However, these ideas were scrapped due to the memory limitations of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation.

** Oxide Station, already the second-longest track in the game after Tiny Arena, was originally going to be ''much'' longer, with the track even separating into four different paths at one point. The track was changed and streamlined because it caused the UsefulNotes/PlayStation to lag too much.

** Some of the tracks are based off of Mario originals as well, mostly those from ''Mario Kart 64''. For example - Coco Park is like Luigi Raceway, while Tiny Arena is similar to Wario Stadium. A really clear one is Cortex Castle, a go-cart race through the castle of the series' (usual) BigBad filled with right-angle turns.

** In the other direction, [=CTR=] brought back some Mario Kart features into [=3D=] that only appeared in Mode-7 ''Mario Karts'' until ''Wii'' and ''7'': namely, not having to wiggle the stick for drift boosting (though you do press a button to gain a boost in place of wiggling the stick), and having speed-increasing boost pads on the field.
** In an interesting inversion of this trope, CTR created a system where hopping off a jump gives a racer a boost upon landing, which Mario Kart games later implemented after seeing it work so well in this game. You know you [[WellDoneSonGuy did well]] when the work you were imitating later goes on to imitate you.
* OlderThanTheyThink: ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' introduced tricks which award the driver with a boost upon landing if they make enough hangtime with a hop. ''[=CTR=]'' had the same mechanic earlier, minus the actual tricks.

* BadExportForYou: The PAL version of the game shortens the length of the scrapbook in order to fit all the extra languages on the disc. Not an atrocity by any means, but still a loss over the original.
* DummiedOut: Penta Penguin, who can only be accessed with a cheat code due to being an unfinished character in the NTSC version, with minor problems such as having placeholder lines like "Penguin Yay 1" mixed in with the normal penguin squawks or having Aku Aku protect him even though the item box shows Uka Uka. This led to him being left out of the normal roster in all versions of the game, even though these issues are fixed in non-NTSC regions.

** You cannot unlock Oxide, and even with a cheating device he is not playable in all tracks due to being too large. Keep that in mind when looking for cheats for this game. Doesn't help that beating all the Tropy ghosts unlocks Tropy, therefore many assumed beating all the Oxide ghosts would unlock him, but instead it unlocks [[spoiler:a way to get to the scrapbook from the main menu that normally requires you to beat the much easier story mode]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/CrashBandicoot Has its own page.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Originally the game started out with block-headed characters with no Crash or otherwise related personalities. If Sony didn't make the deal with Universal the game would have been either canceled or have original characters.
** 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 (mainly to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun possibly kill off the franchise]]). 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.
** According to an article published by Electronic Games Magazine a month before the game's release and a Q&A Interview with Jason Rubin, the player would receive Gold Wrenches by beating a level or boss in order to upgrade the kart's performance. The reason why they were removed is unknown.
** Originally, Ripper Roo was gonna be fully voiced, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi2X6HH3Lb8 and speak in full sentences no less]]!
** According to an interview with Naughty Dog's vice president, Evan Wells, Polar and Pura were originally going to be sitting in one kart as a single racer, as were Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe. However these ideas were scrapped due to the memory limitations of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation.
** Originally Oxide was going to be playable but due to his large size, he couldn't fit in the memory of the game's multiplayer mode and the size of his model made him too big for some of the tracks in the game, leading to a lot of model clipping and lag.
** Oxide Station, already the second-longest track in the game after Tiny Arena, was originally going to be ''much'' longer, with the track even separating into four different paths at one point. The track was changed and streamlined because it caused the UsefulNotes/PlayStation to lag too much.
** There are two tracks in CTR that seemingly don't belong to any character: Mystery Caves and Sewer Speedway. WordOfGod has it that these tracks belonged to two planned racers, Koala Kong and Nitrus Brio. However there wasn't enough space available in the game for more than 15 racers, so both of them ended up being cut from the final game. They eventually became playable in the remake.

** Originally the game started out with block-headed characters with no Crash or otherwise related personalities. If Sony didn't make the deal with Universal the game would have had been canceled or have original characters.

** The game's story was somewhat different from the final in early pre-release material:
---> "Neo Cortex isn't the only insane inventor on the Three Islands where Crash Bandicoot lives. Dr Nitros Oxide is about to unleash his own form of madness in an attempt to take over the world. After he suffered a terrible accident as a child, Nitros Oxide was transformed into an ultra-fast freak of nature. He challenged the inhabitants of the island to a racing tournament and retired undefeated after ten years of failing to find any genuine contenders for his crown. Bored and restless he turned his attentions towards taking over the world. Learning of this, Dr Cortex has gathered both friends and lifelong enemies together in one united attempt to defeat Nitros Oxide once and for all. If just one of them can out race him, maybe they can stop him from operating The Hyper Activator – a power beam machine capable of turning the entire planet into a super fast speed zone. Each of the new contenders is now intent on taking the Hyper Activator for his or her own purposes – while Crash and his friends want to prevent it getting into the hands of a mad scientist, there's a whole slew of evil wackos who want it to grant them control over the world. They decided to challenge each other in a series of races to find out who was the fastest, and most worthy, to face Nitros Oxide in the final showdown. The race to save the planet had begun!"

** Originally Oxide was going to be playable but due to his large size, He couldn't fit in the memory of the game's multiplayer mode, As well as the size of his model being too big for some of the tracks in the game leading to a lot of model clipping and lag.

** In the other direction, [=CTR=] brought back some Mario Kart features into [=3D=] that only appeared in Mode-7 ''Mario Karts'' until ''Wii'' and ''7'': namely, not having to wiggle the stick for drift boosting (though you do press a button to gain a boost in place of wiggling the stick), and having speed-increasing pickups on the field.

--> "Neo Cortex isn't the only insane inventor on the Three Islands where Crash Bandicoot lives. Dr Nitros Oxide is about to unleash his own form of madness in an attempt to take over the world. After he suffered a terrible accident as a child, Nitros Oxide was transformed into an ultra-fast freak of nature. He challenged the inhabitants of the island to a racing tournament and retired undefeated after ten years of failing to find any genuine contenders for his crown. Bored and restless he turned his attentions towards taking over the world. Learning of this, Dr Cortex has gathered both friends and lifelong enemies together in one united attempt to defeat Nitros Oxide once and for all. If just one of them can out race him, maybe they can stop him from operating The Hyper Activator – a power beam machine capable of turning the entire planet into a super fast speed zone. Each of the new contenders is now intent on taking the Hyper Activator for his or her own purposes – while Crash and his friends want to prevent it getting into the hands of a mad scientist, there's a whole slew of evil wackos who want it to grant them control over the world. They decided to challenge each other in a series of races to find out who was the fastest, and most worthy, to face Nitros Oxide in the final showdown. The race to save the planet had begun!"

** Originally Oxide was going to be playable but due to his large size, He couldn't fit in the memory of the game's multiplayer mode, Although the creators stated if his model was too big for some of the tracks in the game leading to a lot of model clipping.

** Originally Oxide was going to be playable but due to his large size, He couldn't fit in the memory of the game's multiplayer mode, Also his model was too big for some of the tracks leading to a lot of model clipping with the tracks.

** Originally Oxide was going to be playable but due to his large size, He couldn't fit in the memory of the game's multiplayer mode, Also his model was too big for some of the tracks leading to a lot of models clipping with the tracks.

** Originally Oxide was going to be playable but due to his large size, He couldn't fit in the memory of the game's multiplayer mode.
** Oxide Station, already the second longest track in the game after Tiny Arena, was originally going to be ''much'' longer, with the track even separating into four different paths at one point. The track was changed and streamlined because it caused the UsefulNotes/PlayStation to lag too much.

** The game's story was somewhat different from the final: