Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Boost Mechanics Explained

This CTR: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (Remake / Remaster) Guide explains how to boost, which is a special mechanic like using Nitrous to increase your speed. This includes how to Start-Boost, Drift-Boost, Jump-Boost and how to use the Sacred Fire. This is essential to win races on hard difficulty and beat Oxide’s times in the Time Trials. So make sure you practice this a lot to become a master at the game. It’s the most important mechanic to improve your times on each track.

There are multiple ways of getting a boost in CTR. We will start with the basic ones:

Start Boost

This is the boost you can gain while starting a race. Be sure to pump the button a few times before the race starts for a perfect starting boost. The power of the starting boost depends on how many times you pressed the button. About 3 times should grant you the strongest possible start boost. Press the button just before the green light (when you hear the sound of the green light) to activate the boost.

Jump Boost

When having a long enough air-time from a jump you will be granted a boost while landing. The power of the boost depends on the amount of time spent in the air. Jump boost can be used to extend your boosing time.

Turbo Pads

The most obvious source of boost. Those green arrowed pads on the ground you probably ran across here and there a few times. Hitting them gives you a boost.

Slide Boost (Drift Boost)

A manual source of a boost which you can achieve basically everywhere in the game. When entering the drift state by pressing and holding either or and a direction of either left or right (depending on which direction you want to drift in) and pressing the other of those two buttons once the boost-bar in your lower right corner fills up. You can and should perform it up to three times while hitting the second button as late as possible. The later you press the button, the better the turbo will be. The right timing to trigger the boost is when you see black smoke coming out of your exhaust, or alternatively when the boost-bar in the bottom right corner turns orange-red. So what you do is press + / to initiate the drift > your wheels will start burning > press when you see black smoke (or boost meter turns orange-red). This gives a small boost. Keep holding to keep drifting and when you see black smoke again you press a second and third time. If you do it three times in a single drift you gain a big boost. This big boost is the key to winning time trials and hard difficulty races. Practice this a lot!

Reserve

What is reserve? Well, you can build up reserves for your boost-tank while not seeing it. By performing multiple boosts in a short period of time your invisible tank will fill up. This will allow you to extend your stronger boosts later on when needed. Boosting as much as possible will help you keeping momentum. It will come in handy when talking about the next part of the guide.

Fire/Sacred Fire

While hitting a turbo pad you will notice a fire coming out of the exhaust. It can differ in sizes and the biggest of it is called Sacred Fire. Sacred Fire gives you a huge speed boost and your aim is to keep it going as long as you can by chaining other boosts. This is also where the reserves come in handy. Reserves will help you extend the duration of Fire for a while. Keeping Fire going is the way for beating Oxides Trials as well as being decent at the game overall.

Ultimate Sacred Fire

Sometimes you might notice your Fire coming from your exhaust being blue-ish or sort of white. This means Ultimate Sacred Fire. It is the fastest boost in the game and you want to keep it going for as long as you can for maximum speed. This art of boost is NOT available on every stage in the game, but only on chosen Turbo-Pads of certain stages, which are listed below. Having a lot of reserve helps to keep it going, as well as chaining slide boosts over and over again.

USF Tracks:

• Cortex Castle
• N.Gin Labs
• Hot Air Skyway
• Polar Pass
• Oxide Station
• Turbo Track/Retro Stadium (Sort of)
• Clockwork Wumpa
• Electron Avenue
• Deep Sea Driving
• Thunder Struck
• Tiny Temple
• Out of Time
• Hyper Spaceway

Hope this short guide gave you an overview of how the nitro boost mechanics work. Those mechanics are heavily used in the Oxide Time Trials Guide as well, make sure you check that out if you want to test your skills. Knowing the above terminology will help you understand better how to perfect your times on each track.