Crash Team Racing Cheat Codes & Secrets

Cheat Codes (Main Menu)

All cheat codes are entered at the main menu screen (where Crash sits in his kart). No special code entry screen is needed — hold the required buttons and input the sequence. A sound effect confirms the code activated.

Code	Effect	Input Sequence
Penta Penguin	Unlocks hidden character for all modes	Hold L1+R1, press Right, Triangle, Down, Down, Triangle, Left, Down, Triangle
Infinite Wumpa Fruit	Keeps your Wumpa count maxed at 10	Hold L1+R1, press Triangle, Down, Right, Down, Right, Down, Right, Triangle
Turbo / Juiced Up Mode	All karts run at boosted top speed	Hold L1+R1, press Up, Up, Down, Right, Right
All Tracks (Time Trial)	Unlocks all 18 tracks in Time Trial	Hold L1+R1, press Triangle, Right, Down, Right, Triangle, Left, Down, Left
Scrapbook	Opens the developer art gallery	At the title screen, press L2, R2, L2, R2, L2

Note: Codes can be stacked. Activating Infinite Wumpa Fruit alongside Turbo Mode lets you maintain maximum weapon power with no effort — a common combo for casual play.

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Password System

CTR does not use a password system. Progress is saved exclusively to a PlayStation Memory Card (1 block required). Without a memory card, all Adventure Mode progress, unlocked characters, and Time Trial ghosts are lost when the console is powered off. There is no workaround for memory-card-less saving.

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Unlockable Characters

Unlocked via Adventure Mode

Defeat each boss in Adventure Mode to unlock them as playable racers in all other game modes.

Character	Unlock Condition
Ripper Roo	Defeat Ripper Roo at Ripper Roo’s Racetrack
Papu Papu	Defeat Papu Papu at Papu Papu’s Pyramid
Komodo Joe	Defeat Komodo Joe at Komodo Joe’s Speedway
Pinstripe Potoroo	Defeat Pinstripe Potoroo at Pinstripe’s Boiler
Fake Crash	Earn all four Trophy Cups in Adventure Mode

Unlocked via Time Trial

Character	Unlock Condition
N. Tropy	Beat N. Tropy’s ghost time on all 18 tracks in Time Trial mode

N. Tropy’s ghosts are fast but beatable with consistent powersliding technique. Completing this legitimately on all 18 courses is considered one of the harder achievements in the game.

Cheat Code Only

Character	Notes
Penta Penguin	A joke/hidden character — a small blue penguin. Has no story presence and is not obtainable through normal play. Uses the same stats as Pura.

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Secret Unlockables: Gem Stone Valley

Gem Stone Valley is a hidden bonus race area not accessible through normal Adventure Mode progression.

How to unlock:

1. In Adventure Mode, collect all three CTR Tokens (C, T, R) on every track. These are scattered throughout each course.
2. Collecting all three tokens on a single track triggers a CTR Challenge — a one-lap time trial with all tokens already placed.
3. Complete every CTR Challenge across all tracks.
4. Gem Stone Valley opens as a secret hub with additional races and challenges.

This is entirely separate from the Trophy Cup progression and is required for 100% completion.

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Relic Races

Relic Races are unlocked by defeating Oxide in Adventure Mode. Each track has a hidden Relic collectible obtained by finishing the course under a target time while destroying all crates along the route — breaking a crate resets a brief time penalty clock, so speed and crate routing are both critical.

Relic Tier	Time Requirement
Sapphire	Easiest (most lenient time)
Gold	Intermediate
Platinum	Hardest, typically within a few seconds of a perfect run

Collecting Relics is required for the hidden Oxide ending and true 100%.

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Performance Techniques and Exploits

Turbo Start (Boost Start)

At the race countdown, hold X (accelerate) exactly as the final countdown light activates (when “1!” appears on screen). If timed correctly, blue exhaust flames fire from your kart and you launch with a speed burst. Holding X too early causes a spinout; too late and you get no boost.

Practice timing: listen for the beep on each countdown number — accelerate on the third beep.

Powerslide Boosting (Core Mechanic)

Powersliding is the central skill of CTR and the primary exploit separating fast players from slow ones.

1. Tap Square (brake/hop) briefly while turning to enter a hop.
2. Hold Square + the turn direction to begin sliding.
3. Hold the slide — the exhaust flame color indicates your boost level:
   • Blue flame — small boost
   • Orange flame — medium boost
   • Red flame — full boost
4. Release Square to fire the boost and immediately hop again to chain the next slide.

Chaining red-flame boosts through an entire corner (and back-to-back through a straight with small hops) is called boost chaining and results in lap times dramatically faster than driving normally. It is not a bug — it is the intended advanced mechanic, but it is so powerful that it essentially defines competitive play.

Wumpa Fruit Weapon Power-Up

Collecting 10 Wumpa Fruits upgrades your currently held weapon to its enhanced form (e.g., single missile becomes triple missiles, TNT becomes Nitro, Bomb becomes Super Bomb). Being hit resets your count to zero. The Infinite Wumpa Fruit cheat code permanently locks you at 10, keeping weapons upgraded at all times.

Reserve Boost (Item Conservation)

Firing a boosted item (while at 10 Wumpa Fruits) and immediately collecting another item of the same type before the animation finishes can occasionally preserve the power-up tier. This is inconsistent and depends on item pickup timing.

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Developer Easter Eggs

The Scrapbook

Accessed via the code listed above (L2, R2, L2, R2, L2 at the title screen), the Scrapbook unlocks a hidden gallery of Naughty Dog development artwork, including early character designs, track concepts, and behind-the-scenes images from the game’s production. This content is not referenced anywhere in the manual.

Naughty Dog Dog Tag

The Naughty Dog logo — a paw print — appears embedded in various textures throughout the game’s environment geometry, particularly on walls and in background details. Looking carefully at the texture work on several tracks reveals the studio’s signature hidden in plain sight.

Oxide’s Dialogue Skip Trick

During the opening Oxide cinematic when he challenges Crash to race for Earth, rapidly pressing X or Start cycles through the dialogue at high speed. While this is just the standard skip mechanic, speedrunners use it to note that the game loads the Adventure Mode hub faster than any other menu path, making Oxide’s cutscene the quickest route into a fresh save run.

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Battle Mode Arenas

Battle Mode arenas are accessible from the main menu and support 1–4 players. All arenas are available from the start — none require unlocking. The available arenas are:

Arena	Description
Rampage Ruins	Ancient temple layout with tight corridors
Rocky Road	Outdoor rocky terrain
Nitro Court	Open courtyard with item box clusters
Parking Lot	Urban-themed flat arena
North Bowl	Snow-covered bowl shape
Pinstripe’s Mansion	Interior corridors with elevation changes

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Notes on Emulator Compatibility

All cheat codes function identically on emulators (ePSXe, PCSX2’s PS1 mode, DuckStation) as on original hardware. For the Turbo Start technique, emulator timing can differ slightly depending on frame rate settings — lock to 60fps/PAL 50fps to match hardware behavior. Save states replace the need for a memory card entirely.