One of the surprise announcements from this year’s Summer Game Fest is the next instalment in the Hot Wheels series titled Infinite Rush.
As a massive fan of the series so far, with the last two games offering a very solitary experience, Infinite Rush completely throws this formula out the window and sets the formula to be open-world, very similar to Forza Horizon with Hot Wheels cars and tracks instead. Funnily enough, Forza Horizon 5 also had a crack at Hot Wheels.
It simply feels like the series is growing with its core audience; kids who played the first two games would be in that older age bracket now, ready for a more intricate, diverse and realistic style of racing.
Taking it to the Track
The game is split up into four different islands with unique themes and areas. For this preview, I was able to freely roam around “Wheelywood”; it felt like a replica of New York City with a bustling city hub that also incorporates the classic Hot Wheels orange and yellow click-clack track pieces so you can still perform the crazy loops and tricks.
These tracks have been strategically placed across the city around buildings, over bridges and its own track hub area. The size of the city is massive for a Hot Wheels title, while not overwhelming, it feels like it is packed with many things to do, races to complete and of course cars to discover and collect.
The races are broken into your typical quick race, elimination race and time attacks. There are also drift challenges and many other things to do that we didn’t get time to explore at the preview event. Each event has a car that can be chosen to best suit the type of race.
The Drifter car allows you more control when, well, drifting, while the Speeder is better suited to straightforward races. The Versatile is good for just cruising around the city and exploring and finally the Titan, lets you essentially charge through anything in your way.
One of the most fun parts of the Hot Wheels series is car collecting. It was great to see various cars from playsets from my childhood as I rushed through the city. While selecting a pre-made vehicle, there are also some customisation options so you can do things like edit the colour of your wheels and the body of the vehicle.
Thoughts So Far
While the developer has confirmed that there will be over 150 vehicles available to choose from when the game releases, and alongside the customisation options, it feels like there are going to be a wide variety of vehicle choices and ways to play.
I simply can’t wait to dive deeper into this when the full game releases later this year.
Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is set to launch on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2 on 24th September, 2026.
Featured header image provided by the publisher.
