History Main / WackyRacing

* The shortlived comic book ''{{Chassis}}'' centred around aircar racing in an AlternateHistory where World war II never happened.

** Though in all fairness, Wipeout does try to be more "realistic" and certainly more consistent than many of the other examples here

* ''HSX Hypersonic.Extreme'' (also known as ''G Surfers''). Think of F-Zero X, ''20 times faster'' and taking place on a ''Real-Scale rendition of the world''. It also features a very powerful track editor whick takes adventage of said ''Real-Scale rendition of the world''.
* One of Blizzard's earliest games, ''{{Rock N Roll Racing}}'' featured futuristic race cars, racing on tracks with deadly jumps and mines, while the racers themselves touted energy blasters, missles, and mines.

* Any of the TwistedMetal games.

* In the episode "Death Race to Oblivion" of ''BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', the interstellar warlord Mongul forces five superheroes and five supervillains to participate in the titular death race. The Batmobile and its ilk are already pretty WackyRaces in expressing the owner's, uh, preferrences, but this episode revels in it.
* 'Johnny Kart Racing' in ''JohnnyTest'' centered around this. Notably, the episode starts off as a normal soapbox car race between Johnny and Dukey, snowballs into this trope as more and more racers enter, and the soapboxes are swapped for real cars. Also noteworth is that a lampshade is hung DickDastardlyStopsToCheat.

* ''SpeedRacer'' had the Mach 5, Dangerous Courses and a ''Vehicular Acrobatics Team''. And let's not get started on [[BeyondTheImpossible the movie!]]

[[folder:Board Games]]
* The ''CarWars'' boardgame by Steve Jackson Games is another. It's TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and [[AfterTheEnd the aftermath of a nuclear war]] and everyone drives around in cars with machine guns and lasers and the like. Sometimes there are races, but other times the drivers just [[VehicularCombat blow seven bells out of each other's vehicles in an arena or on the road]].
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* The manga ''Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles'' has the dragonfly races in the world of Piffle with all the racers being cameo characters from other {{CLAMP}} series.

*** Of course, the Wachowski brothers' live action ''[[Film/SpeedRacer Speed Racer]]'' is all over this.

* {{Re-Volt}}, similar to MicroMachines but with radio control cars, combine EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs and HighOctaneNightMareFuel in the second game.
* ChoroQ series isn't as wacky as others in term of a racing rule. However, after the 2nd game, the series started to put the racing courses that are beyond reality such as a disco factory, a sewer, inside a castle, [[NightMareFuel a haunthouse]], outer space, on the sky, under the water, and other weird possible areas. And instead of powerup, they have upgradable parts which are BeyondTheImpossible instead.

* 'Johnny Kart Racing' in JohnnyTest centered around this. Notably, the episode starts off as a normal soapbox car race between Johnny and Dukey, snowballs into this trope as more and more racers enter, and the soapboxes are swapped for real cars. Also noteworth is that a lampshade is hung DickDastardlyStopsToCheat.

* ''SpeedRacer'' had the Mach 5, Dangerous Courses and a ''Vehicular Acrobatics Team''.
** And let's not get started on [[BeyondTheImpossible the movie!]]

* The TV series of ''FutureGPXCyberFormula'' has this with more wacky racing courses like a track with ice hills and roads with time-floods, with booster-equipped cars as the racing machines. In the [=OVA=]s, this aspect has been largely abandoned.

* [[http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/ 24 hours of Lemons]]. Just, go out there and look how people race these little pieces of crap. You won't regret it.

* Any number of challenges attempted on ''TopGear''. Bugatti Veyron (1000 bhp supercar) vs. Eurofighter Typhoon (top-rated fighter jet) in a drag race (vertical vs. horizontal), Mazda M-5 vs. a greyhound (the dog, not the bus), compact car vs. LeParkour, Historic People Carrier/Motorhome/Passenger Bus/Airport Vehicle Racing, etc. That image at the top of this article is a screenshot of a race between driving pairs. Yes, there are two drivers to each double-decker car; one sits at the bottom and handles the gas and brakes, while the other sits at the top and handles the steering.
** The amazing thing about the Bugatti Veyron race was not that the Bugatti lost, but that it lost by only FOUR SECONDS.
** There was a division similar to that in some speedways for a while. One car involved, but two drivers.
** Don't forget racing ''the post.'' They basically raced against an ''abstract concept.'' [[spoiler: And lost.]]
* [[http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/ 24 hours of Lemons]]. Just, go out there and look how people race these little pieces of crap. You won't regret it.

* The TropeNamer is ''WackyRaces'', which in turn is based on ''TheGreatRace''. That fits the Driver and car aspects of this trope.
** ''[[YogiBear Yogi's Space Race]]'' is an extension of this, [[{{Recycled IN SPACE}} in space!]]
** And the ''FenderBender500'', which replaced everyone except Dick Dastardly and Muttley with classic Hanna-Barbera characters.
** ''[=~Dexter's Laboratory~=]'' also did a homage to ''WackyRaces'' with a cartoon based on the concept except replacing the typical drivers with ''Dexter's Laboratory'' regulars.
** ''Laff-A-Lympics'' frequently included races as well, with various vehicles. Hanna-Barbera is fond of this trope.

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* TeamFortress2 introduces the Payload Race mode. The RED and BLU teams push a cart(Packed with an ammo/health dispenser and a [[{{BFB}} massive bomb]]) from their side of the area to the opposing team's base. Whoever gets theirs to the final station wins. Of course, they're free to screw with each other's progress.

** Shall we quote TheNostalgiaCritic on the "Mind Fuck" chase sequence in ''{{Tom and Jerry}}: TheMovie'' here?

* ''RedLine'' takes this to rediculous levels. Tailenders, too.

** The original ''Extreme-G'' on the N64 was able to actually overdo the wackiness. There was a cheat code that enabled you to get a random secondary weapon just by clicking it's fire button as opposed to running over a power-up on the track. And this worked for the A.I. racers too. Cue much rocketspamming and the amount of carnage going on could mess up the N64's processor and graphics and reduce the game to it's bare wireframe models in that race.

* The early 90s computer game ''Stunts'' was about racing in European supercars on courses filled with more obstacles than you can shake a stick at, including half-pipes, corkscrews, loops, jumps over buildings, and roads made of ice. Its SpiritualSuccessor ''{{Trackmania}}'' upped the ante by introducing ''air-suspended courses specially meant for cars that defy the laws of physics''.

* The manga ''Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles'' has the dragonfly races in the world of Piffle with all the racers being cameo characters from other CLAMP series.

* The ''CarWars'' boardgame by Steve Jackson Games is another. It's TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and [[AfterTheEnd the aftermath of a nuclear war]] and everyone drives around in cars with machine guns and lasers and the like. Sometimes there are races, but other times the drivers just blow seven bells out of each other's vehicles in an arena or on the road.

** A first season ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' episode had a race between trainers riding one of their Pokémon (or in one case, Pikachu riding Squirtle).
*** One episode during the Johto saga had something called "Extreme Pokémon", where the Pokémon pulled the trainer on a skateboard.

* ''ScrambleWars'' was a SuperDeformed Wacky Race parody featuring several anime produced by AIC (such as ''BubblegumCrisis'', ''GallForce'', ''{{Megazone 23}}'', ''Mospeada'', and ''[[GunsmithCats Riding Bean]]'').
* ''[[{{Gundam}} SD Gundam]]'' did a ''WackyRaces'' homage episode, complete with ''GundamZZ'' villains Yazan Gable and Gemon Bajack as transparent parodies of Dick Dastardly and Muttley. Sadly, due to licensing issues this short couldn't be included in a recent DVD collection.

The race often has rules [[UnnecessaryRoughness more akin to a Demolition Derby than a normal race]], and often takes place on an improbable course. Courses built around entire cities, courses with rollercoaster-like architecture, Courses floating in midair, courses [[PhantomZone existing only in an alternate racing dimension]], and courses in locations where it's generally not safe to be standing, let alone ''racing'' are common. In addition, the vehicles themselves are often specialized. If they're cars, expect them to have weapons and other modifications.

** Shall we quote [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses the Nostalgia Critic]] on the "Mind Fuck" chase sequence in ''{{Tom and Jerry}}: TheMovie'' here?

It's almost traditional for a set of characters in a non-racing series to have an episode or spinoff where they engage in this. TheHero [[BoringInvincibleHero usually wins]], the EnsembleDarkhorse always gets the [[CoolCar coolest car]], and the villain [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat cheats and has it backfire hilariously]].

*** I read on TheOtherWiki that they'd planned on making a ''Wacky Races'' movie as part of the ''Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10'' mini-series, but ended up ''not'' doing so. Anyone else think it ended up becoming ''Reluctant Werewolf''?

** Yes, having ''[[RobotsInDisguise bullet trains]]'' participate in a rally race [[SarcasmMode isn't ridiculous at all]].