Speed Racer-ish game?

[Simlasa]

I was looking at a display of Hot Wheels the other day and remember that I'd been wanting to find/play a futurisic racing game.
I can't think of any modern car racing games besides Gaslands... and most of the older ones I know of are also aimed at Mad Max (or Deathrace) style action.

In particular, I'd like a game that was more centered on racing than combat... lighter spirit... and no guns/missiles on cars. Kind of like the Formula 1 boardgame from Waddingtons... but wilder, more scifi like Speed Racer and his supercar.
So, a system for creating high tech race cars, new tracks and random events... and a campaign system for running race circuits.
Maybe something with stats for pit crew and drivers... borderline RPG personal drama effecting driving skills.

Not that there would be no conflict at all... Speed Racer was full of cars forcing others off the road or pulling nasty tricks... but it wasn't Gaslands.

Any thoughts on this? Could Gaslands be easily tweaked to such a thing?

[Mr. White]

Maybe the board game Rush’n’Crush? One of the complaints was that the cars were too small to handle anyway, so maybe increase the scale of the game to use hot wheels?

[Simlasa]

That game seems a bit basic. The track segments might be useful if there was enough of them, and they were bigger... but it lacks any of the RPG elements I'd want.

After thinking about it for a while, a mecha RPG like Mekton might be the best option for me... plus tacking on some racing rules that would support Speed Racer style action.

[Mr. White]

Consider Games Workshop’s Dark Future. The was a White Dwarf supplement called Day At The Races, which is more racing with rpg elements. You upgrade cars as such.

True DF was sorta post apoc/dystopian, but if you go more sci-fi with your boards and cars it can be Speed Racer-like.

[Cat]

Speed Rally was written specifically for this when the Speed Racer movie came out and the toy cars were plentiful:
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/83244/Speed-Rally

[has.been]

Look on the various free rules sites.
That was where I picked up a set for Pod Racing,
like in Star wars. 
Rather than building a track you could just have
turn, skid, move templates & play on a table with
appropriate scenery.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I'd just steal the Gaslands driving rules and bash my own game from there.  Its combat system is pretty lame anyway so dropping it completely won't cost you much, and if you toned down collision damage a bit to make lethal ramming less viable a tactic you'd be at a good starting point.  If there's one thing that shines in that game it's the movement mechanics, and they ought to suit a noncombat racer as well or better.

[SotF]

That game seems a bit basic. The track segments might be useful if there was enough of them, and they were bigger... but it lacks any of the RPG elements I'd want.

After thinking about it for a while, a mecha RPG like Mekton might be the best option for me... plus tacking on some racing rules that would support Speed Racer style action.

If you want the track segments, one thing that seems to work rather well to make them is to look at the "road tape" that's made for kids to play with that looks like roads. A friend of mine had run a more normal racing game for one stores open games days with that tape mounted on the sticky backed floor tiles. Some of the tape variants are kind of out there in appearance.

I don't remember the specifics, but when he created it, he used something similar to an old game that I'd created for other purposes (My old Turkey Hunt game) where each player has 3 parts...in my game it was Class/Trait/Equipment and it could be randomized. I know he had Driver/Car for part of it, I think he might have dropped the last part, but had them on cards where you had everything there by randomly drawing to get some variance between racers.

[Simlasa]

Speed Rally was written specifically for this when the Speed Racer movie came out and the toy cars were plentiful:
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/83244/Speed-Rally

Yeah, I need to check out Speed Rally. It sounds closest in spirit to what I'm aiming for.

[Logus Vile]

The designer of Gaslands created a variant called Martian Racing Federation which he released in the Blaster magazine.

There's no shooting, Gears or Wipeout. There's G-force and you plan out your turn in advance and just activate when it's your turn.

He calls it "High-G anti-grav racing".

I haven't tried it myself but it sounds like something you should definitely look at.

[Cat]

Yeah, I need to check out Speed Rally. It sounds closest in spirit to what I'm aiming for.

It captures the flavour very nicely.  And whatever rules you wind up playing, it would be a very handy reference source because it has all the Speed Racer specific gizmos covered.