NASCAR Racers

"Extreme Machines!"

NASCAR Racers was an animated show about racing between two NASCAR teams taken to the Wacky Racing trope to the coolest extent. It ran from 1999-2001, with 26 episodes.

Two rival NASCAR teams, Team Fastex and Team Rexcor, compete in futuristic races with one another on tracks with over-the-top technology in a new location almost Once an Episode. The first season focuses on the racing, but the Backstory of each character is examined further and loose ends are tied up in the second season. Season two thickened the plotline and is considered when the show Grew the Beard by some fans.

A lot of parallels can be drawn from this series to the new series Metajets, it seems.

Of course, there was also a toy line.

Characters:

• Team Fastex
  • Jack Fassler: The leader and owner of the team.
  • Mark "Charger" McCutchen: Follows in the steps of his father in racing, and The Rival of Lyle Owen.
  • Megan "Spitfire" Fassler: The obligatory girl, and a skilled driver whose adopted father Jack is the manager of the team.
  • Steve "Flyer" Sharp: Was injured in an accident where a barrel exploded in his face, and it has made him cautious in racing. Also a member of the U.S. Air Force.
  • Carlos "Stunts" Rey: Races for money to pay for his ill father's medical expense. Rexton hires a guy to steal money from him.
• Team Rexcor
  • Garner Rexton: The owner of the team. A greedy, dishonest man who will stop at nothing to win. He's aided by a cyborg named Spex.
  • Lyle "The Collector" Owens: The star of the team, a ruthless and cruel racer who gets his nickname from arrogantly taking a part off of each car he passes.
  • Hondo "Specter" Hines: A sneaky guy who teams up with Zorina to crash other cars, who is easily led.
  • Zorina: An aggressive, cruel racer who teams up with Specter to race.
  • Diesel "Junker" Spitz: A clumsy delinquent who trashes cars when racing.

Tropes used in NASCAR Racers include:

• Combat Pragmatist: Lyle.
• Conspicuous CGI
• Delinquent: Junker
• Face Heel Turn: Spitfire takes one after Rexton convinces her into believing lies about her past. She also makes a new team herself called "The Spitfires".
• Fiery Redhead: Spitfire.
• Happily Adopted: Jack adopted Megan and is a loving father.
• Hollywood Cyborg: Spex.
• Jerkass: Definitely Lyle.
• Merchandise-Driven
• Only Known by Their Nickname: A few extra characters.
• Opposing Sports Team: Rexcor
• Rule of Cool
• The Smurfette Principle: There aren't a lot of women drivers in Real Life, though.
• Start My Own: Megan temporarily left Fastex to start her own racing team.
• Twenty Minutes Into the Future
• Wacky Racing: It's set a future where NASCAR has evolved into a Speed Racer style event around grotesque dangerous tracks. Ironically, though, it's actually safer than real NASCAR, since all the vehicles have "rescue racers", an escape pod jettisoned in the event of a crash.