Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled - 15 Tips & Tricks The Game Doesn't Tell You

1. "Reserves" & "Sacred Fire"

The hidden mechanics behind why so many people adore Crash Team Racing so much (even if they're yet to learn these terms), is how Naughty Dog coded the whole game so that when you're good enough, it's possible to maintain one ginormous boost - all at top speed - all the way around any track.

These nerdy-as-hell terms have come from the fan community over time, so let's break them down.

Reserves:

Although it takes just less than a second to fully build your Boost meter when drifting, it'll actually give you a full second of speed-boost when you let go of the button.

This means that consecutive boosts; hopping into a drift, then pressing hop, into another drift - providing you're maxing out the meter before letting go - builds up a "Reserve" of turbo for your kart to let out.

Naughty Dog (and now Beenox) have coded the game to draw from this reserve amount if you can keep your kart boosting. We're talking fractions of a second that mount up to full seconds, all being ready to extend your "standard" amount of boost from a drift or pad, keeping you at top speed.

Sacred Fire:

Having or keeping "Sacred Fire" is the name given to riding in this window of opportunity I've just described.

Staying in that pocket was always how the best players nail the fastest times, and in Nitro-Fueled, you'll have to practice chaining everything together to stand a chance on Hard mode, or the upper tiers of online matchmaking.