Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver is a racing game developed by Mattel Media and published by THQ for PC in October of 1998. The game takes place in the home of an unnamed child who spent an entire day building Hot Wheels tracks throughout their house. Gameplay focused heavily on performing stunts on pre-rendered levels while avoiding crashing into obstacles, with a final score based on the time it took to complete a track while performing stunts in midair would give the player's car a speed boost beyond what the controls would allow for.
There were three game modes. The first was a championship mode that required players to complete all six tracks within a time limit, starting over from the first track if the player failed to do so. The second mode allowed players to run through the individual tracks, though two had to be unlocked in the championship mode first. Finally, there was a custom track builder that would render in real time with medal times based on the track's length.
A sequel titled Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver 2: Get'n Dirty would be released for PC in January 2000. The core gameplay was unchanged and the levels were still pre-rendered, but the game took place on off-road tracks that ran through a variety of outdoor locations. Get'n Dirty had the same three game modes as its predecessor, but included secret paths along most tracks for players to find. The custom track builder also had its own 3D engine, allowing for much more open gameplay on the custom tracks.
Finally, another game also titled Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver was developed by Lucky Chicken Games for the Game Boy Color and released in June 2000. A true racing game, this game had players either race against a pair of AI-controlled cars on 2D tracks or race against another player using a game link cable. As in the first game, the tracks were all built in and around a house.
- Competitive Balance: All of the cars in each game have different speed, acceleration, and stunt speed.
- Lethal Lava Land: The underground track in Get'n Dirty almost immediately sends the player into a cave full of lava and dinosaur bones that comprises the most of track's first half. This area also contains the level's secret path, which veers off near another lava pit instead of the Crystal Landscape that the main track passes through.
- Level Editor: Both PC games allow the player to design custom tracks. In both cases, the times needed for medals
- The first game's track builder uses track pieces from the existing tracks, with generic pieces limited to a orange-and-blue color scheme. It's also set in the garage and renders the created track in real time when played.
- Get'n Dirty also has a track builder, though this one has its own 3D engine and uses entirely unique setpieces, making for slower but more open gameplay set in the backyard.
- The Lost Woods: One of the unlockable tracks in Get'n Dirty is on a river in the middle of the forest. The track runs past various wildlife and through a fallen log, culminating in your car getting eaten by a fish. There's also a fisherman's boat that's much too large for the river.
- Mouse World: The tracks are on the same scale as actual Hot Wheels toys. Depending on the game, there might be mice, squirrels, or even spiders the same size as your car while housepets absolutely tower over the track.
- Nitro Boost: The first PC game and the Game Boy Color game both make heavy use of the Dash Pads variant of this trope, having sections of each track that speed up your car. In the PC game, they take the form of a section of track with wheels on either side that fling the car forward. In the GBC game, there are arrow pads that boost the car's speed. All three games also give a speed boost upon landing after performing mid-air stunts.
- Palatial Sandcastle: The first game's sandbox track runs all around a gigantic sandcastle, including some arches and tunnels through the castle itself. The castle even has a moat.
- Pre-Rendered Graphics: Each level in the PC games is a fully-rendered video whose playback speed changes as the player's car speeds up or slows down. Obstacles are timed to objects and track segments in the videos with varying degrees of precision. The first game's custom track builder instead attempts to render player-created tracks and the surrounding garage in real time.
- Product Placement: As one might expect from Merchandise-Driven games, the cars in all games are all from existing toylines. The first game doubles down on this by using track pieces from track sets sold during 90s. The tracks in the sandbox level are also propped up by boxes from the Wild Wave and G-Force toylines while the game room has a poster for the Speed Blaster toyline, all of which predate the game by multiple years.
- Toy Time: Both the original and Game Boy Color games have tracks in the unnamed child's bedroom. Both tracks are surrounded by the child's other toys and in the PC game, one of the jumps is over the kid's train set.
- Treehouse of Fun: The final track in Get'n Dirty goes through the unnamed child's treehouse during its first half. The track is surrounded by comic books, posters, and toys and while it's solidly built, it does nothing to keep the squirrels out. Naturally, the kid built a Hot Wheels track through it.
- Secret Level: There's a secret seventh track in the first PC game, which can only be accessed by right-clicking the Mattel logo on the track selection screen. It consists of a track floating in empty space over a wireframe landscape.
- Underground Level: Get'n Dirty has an underground track that includes lava, dinosaur bones, a Crystal Landscape and as-yet unburied treasure, all somehow accessed on a single track that runs through different animal burrows.
- Walk on Water: Downplayed in Get'n Dirty. Whenever a track goes through water, your car never quite touches the bottom despite kicking up water all around it.
