Beenox, the studio behind Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, updated its banner image on social media Wednesday night and then quickly removed it after people noticed the Crash Team Racing image did not match any game in the series.
The image, which was part of a montage along with other games Beenox has worked on, featured Crash's design from Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time in a cart. The sequel to the original Crash trilogy was released a year after Beenox's Crash Team Racing remaster, and the updated Crash Bandicoot design doesn't appear in the polished CTR games.
As if the image alone wasn't enough to send Crash fans into a frenzy, Beenox quickly removed the image after screenshots of it were shared online, prompting people to develop theories. That naturally convinced many people that they were really onto something, and the leading theory was that the image was from an unannounced Crash Team Racing sequel.
Crash Bandicoot fans are hopeful again.
Even though Crash Bandicoot hasn't been receiving much attention lately (save for the very unpopular Crash Team Rumble), you have to imagine that someone, somewhere, is working on a new Crash game. Xbox boasted that Nitro Fueled had sold 10 million copies as of earlier this year. This is a milestone that almost every studio can get their hands on, even six years after the game's release.
Crash Bandicoot 4 has also sold incredibly well, selling over 5 million copies according to the latest sales data. There hasn't been a follow-up to this in five years, and it's almost baffling that there hasn't been a new Crash Team Racing game following the success of Nitro Fueled. It's been a lot longer since a brand new CTR game was released. The series effectively ended in 2005 before being revived for a remaster 14 years later.
It's very possible that this image is a lurking rumor about the future of Crash Team Racing, but the rumor wasn't pointing to an entirely new game. Earlier this year, a leaker claimed that Nitro-Fueled was being repackaged as a Grand Prix Edition for newer consoles, as there are no base PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions yet.
The image of Crash 4 from It's About Time driving a kart suggests that this is an entirely new game, but it's likely more realistic that newer, shinier models will be added to the game with new skins. Whether it's an entirely new game or a significant update to Nitro-Fueled, it seems very likely that Beenox will have something to share with us soon.
