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Since 1994’s Sonic Drift, Sega’s mascot has been appearing in kart racing games that echo the Mario Kart series. For years, this has led to questions about why a being of Sonic’s speed would feel the need to jump behind the wheel of his trademark Speed Star car (which got its own Transformers collaboration toy this year). Ahead of the release of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka offered Shacknews some explanation regarding Sonic’s passion for racing.
“So yes, Sonic likes actually having fun. That competitive spirit and having fun with his friends competitively is one element that Sonic really enjoys. If we were just running flat out, Sonic is going to be faster than everyone. It’s not so much fun and it’d be really more enjoyable to Sonic to be in a car, to be racing, and have that fun competitive edge with his friends. So, that’s why he’s racing,” said Iizuka.
This explanation lines up closely with what Sega has said in the past. In the inaugural episode of the TailsTube video series back in 2022, Sonic the Hedgehog himself was posed a similar question. When asked why the blue blur is often seen behind the wheel of a race car, Sonic seemed baffled by the question. The character simply replied “cuz it’s cool!” It actually does make some degree of sense that a character so passionate about speed would look for other ways to enjoy racing, especially since he has a pretty big advantage on foot. By participating in races that are strictly limited to vehicles, it does give his friends a sporting chance.
