NASCAR Racers is an animated television series by Saban Entertainment which features two rival NASCAR racing teams, Team Fastex and Team Rexcor, competing against each other in the futuristic NASCAR Unlimited Division. The series ran from 1999 to 2001 on Fox Kids. Ownership of the series passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide, which also includes Saban Entertainment. The racing scenes around complicated futuristic tracks were 3D computer animation, while the characters were drawn in traditional 2D cel animation.

Background

Twenty-six half-hour episodes were produced by Saban Entertainment, in conjunction with the Vancouver-based Ocean Productions voice cast, who had worked with Saban on other projects — such as Spider-Man Unlimited and Dragon Ball Z. The show's theme song was composed and performed by Jeremy Sweet. Before beginning its proper run in 2000, NASCAR Racers premiered as a special three-part TV movie on November 11, 1999, although subsequent re-airings have the first three episodes separated from each other. It ended in 2001, with reruns airing on Disney's Jetix after the company's purchase of the Saban Entertainment library. The show was produced before Fox showed NASCAR races, and the show's broadcast history only overlapped with the network's coverage of the real series for one month.

Premise

While real life NASCAR tracks are mainly ovals, NASCAR Racers is anything but. The racers compete on a wide variety of courses, including road course, off-road, mountain, and Motorsphere. The Motorsphere track starts with a typical race track leading into a sphere, then tracks are wrapped around the inner surface of the sphere. The NASCAR Unlimited Division features cutting edge, over-the-top technologies (from the show's point of view). To protect drivers from crashes, each race car has an inner Rescue Racer that ejects from the outer body if an accident happens. XPT racers, introduced in season 2, are the new race cars for Team Fastex. XPT racers use atomic fuel run by forced-combustion systems. Nitro Racers contain high-flux fusion units that can get maximum power out of atomic fuel. The change in body design from the XPT racers to the Nitro Racers was similar to the NASCAR Cup Series' transition to the Car of Tomorrow. XPT racers were sleeker than the boxy Nitro Racers.

Characters

The characters often race on simulators to hone their skills before actual races; this is also done by real NASCAR drivers.

Team Fastex

Team Rexcor

Other Unlimited Series Drivers

Other Team Fastex

Commentators

Episodes

Season 1 (1999–2000)

Season 2 (2000–2001)

Cancelled Season 3

Before Saban Entertainment was acquired by Disney on July 23, 2001 and the sale was finally completed on October 24, 2001, the group had already designed new concepts and storylines for a season 3 which were never put into motion due to an uncertain future with the group, mostly because Saban's sale required full attention.

In other media

Video game

A video game called NASCAR Racers was published in 2000 for Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Color by Hasbro and developed by Software Creations (PC) and Digital Eclipse (GBC). A PlayStation version was planned but cancelled before release.

Books

NASCAR Racers books were authored by Gene Hult under the name J. E. Bright, and published by HarperEntertainment.