At The Game Awards, Crash Team Racing fans from around the world let out a collective, “Whoa!” when a certain orange marsupial helped reveal the official trailer for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled .

One of those fans was Thomas Wilson, who is also the Creative Director and Co-Studio Head at the game’s development studio, Beenox.



“When we started having conversations about remastering Crash Team Racing, I was pinching myself. I was like, “Oh my god, let this be real!”— Thomas Wilson, Creative Director and Co-Studio Head, Beenox.

We braved the cold to visit him at Beenox’s Quebec City studio during the game’s development to talk about all things Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Here’s some of what he was thrilled to share with us:

Activision Games Blog: For you personally as a gamer, what has your experience been with Crash Team Racing?

Wilson: I grew up with Crash Bandicoot; I was a big fan of the character and the series.

I played pretty much all of the original Crash Bandicoot games, so when Vicarious Visions came out with the N. Sane Trilogy, it was like going back in time two decades to when I was first having fun playing those games. It was absolutely great.

When I started out in the video game industry 20 years ago, it was right around the time that the original Crash Team Racing came out. It was my favorite game when it was released. I played it a lot with my girlfriend at the time and we were having a blast playing it.

I also really enjoyed the Adventure mode. Just the idea of introducing a single-player campaign in a multiplayer kart racing game, I thought, was very innovative. I am a huge fan of Crash Team Racing, and it’s been a total privilege working on this game.

You must have loved how it felt to reveal this game at The Game Awards then, right? What was so unique about that reveal?

What I thought was exciting was how it was planned from the tease to the actual event.

Sending the fuzzy dice around was a pretty good tease, and just the idea of the mascot coming on stage at The Game Awards and presenting this box with the trophy was incredible.