Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Grand Prix guide – how to unlock everything

It turns out that we didn’t have long to wait for Crash Team Racing’s second Grand Prix event. Just days after the first leg of its Twilight Tour season, Beenox pulled the lever on this latest stage, dubbed “Back N. Time”.

The same rules apply here as they did in Nitro Tour and there’s also a similar amount of new content to play and unlock including bonus characters, costumes, karts, and other cosmetic alongside the Prehistoric Playground track.

When does Back N. Time end?

Back N. Time is slightly shorter than the Nitro Tour, running from now until August 25th. Anyone who owns a copy of the game will automatically be entered into the Grand Prix, as long as they’ve installed the latest update and are connected to the online servers.

What rewards are there?

Beenox has confirmed that each Grand Prix will come tagged with a themed selection of unlockable items. Back N. Time offers a total of 18 items including the adorable Baby T, two new karts, and two new skins (Fake Crash and Baby T).

What’s special about these is that once the event ends, they’ll no longer be up for grabs. With that said, the developer has hinted that they could return to the Pit Shop at some point in the future.

Speaking of the Pit Stop, each Grand Prix will also introduce karts, characters, and other unlockables which can only be purchased using Wumpa Coins.

Best ways to earn Nitro Points?

The only way to unlock the Grand Prix rewards is to earn Nitro Points. These are doled out after every race along with a small cache of Wumpa Coins.

The more you earn, the more your progress bar will fill. 5,000 Nitro Points will upgrade you from bronze to silver, with 17,000 required for gold, and 42,000 to hit max tier and unlock everything.

If you have your heart set on that Fake Baby T skin, you need to plan accordingly. Throwing yourself into one online race after the next is a bad approach as you’ll only earn a handful of points at a time. The quickest way to soar through the ranks is to complete Grand Prix challenges.

These are similar to trophies or achievements and pay out as much as 700 Nitro Points upon fulfilment. Quick and daily challenges offer a small bundle of points but are relatively easy to complete. However, you should really focus on the pro and themed challenges while also making sure you cross off as many weeklies as possible.

Grand Prix tricks & tips

We have two simple tips that will help you earn the most number of Nitro Points in the shortest time.

First up is your loadout. None of the items available in Nitro-Fueled will confer any gameplay advantages though selecting the right kart, characters, and other add-ons will reward you with additional Nitro Points as you play.

You can earn up to 50% extra points if you select a themed character & skin (20%), a themed kart (10%), decal (5%), wheels (5%), and paint job (5%). This bonus will contribute towards the number of points earned through challenges so this definitely helps in the long run.

Our second hot tip is a bit cheeky but can help you easily cross off some of those tougher challenges. As long as they don’t specify the need to play online via matchmaking, you can set up races against easy AI for these challenges or, if you’re feeling super jammy, play in local co-op, then leave the player 2 controller idle.

For more on Nitro-Fueled, we’ve put together a handy list of guides and features you can find below.

Written by
Senior Editor bursting with lukewarm takes and useless gaming trivia. May as well surgically attach my DualSense at this point.