Beenox, the studio behind Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, updated its banner image on social media Wednesday night, then quickly removed it after people noticed a Crash Team Racing image that didn't match any of the games in the series.
The image, which is part of a montage with other games Beenox has worked on, featured Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Crash's design on the cart. The direct sequel to the original Crash trilogy was released a year after Beenox's Crash Team Racing remaster, and the updated Crash Bandicoot design does not appear in the polished CTR game.
As if the image alone wasn't enough to send Crash fans into overdrive, Beenox quickly took it down after screenshots of it were shared online, prompting people to start spinning theories. This has naturally convinced many that they are really onto something, with the leading theory being that the image is from an unannounced Crash Team Racing sequel.
Crash Bandicoot fans are getting their hopes up again
Although Crash Bandicoot hasn't gotten much attention lately — outside of the wildly 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 ten million copies earlier this year. It's a milestone that almost any studio will take off your hands, six years after the game's launch or not.
Crash Bandicoot 4 also sold incredibly well, shifting more than 5 million copies according to the latest sales data. It's almost surprising that there hasn't been a follow-up to it in five years, and no new Crash Team racing game since the success of Nitro Fuel. It's been even longer since we've actually had a new CTR game, with the series effectively ending in 2005 before it was revived for Remaster 14 years later.
There's a very real possibility that this image is an idle rumor about the future of Crash Team Racing that will eventually be revealed, but that rumor didn't point to a brand new game. Earlier this year, a leaker claimed that Nitro-Fuel has been repackaged as the Grand Prix Edition for new consoles as it still lacks a native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S edition.
While the image of It's About Time's Crash 4 driving a kart suggests it's a brand new game, there's a chance a realistic, new, shiny model will be added to the game in the form of a new skin. Whether it's a whole new game or a significant update for Nitro-Fueled, it looks like Beenox will have something to share with us soon.
