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‘Galactic Racer’ gears up for Star Wars speed
A new game uses real-world cars, bikes and aircraft to shape vehicles built for extreme racing, writes JASON BANNIER.
The fastest vehicles in Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a new sci-fi racing game, can reach around 1,000km/h. Even so, developer Fuse Games began working out how the machines should handle by investigating a galaxy not so far away.
Rally cars, motorcycles, aircraft and Formula 1 inspired the repulsorcraft classes in the game, available from today (6 October 2026).
Game director Bill Lane and design director Mark Bridges revealed that the studio initially designed the vehicles around a traction model similar to a conventional wheeled vehicle. The approach was eventually discarded because repulsorcraft do not rely on tyres gripping a surface. Removing that constraint allowed the developers to experiment with more varied terrain, gradients and higher speeds.
Each vehicle class still draws on real-world reference points. Landspeeders take cues from rally cars and Paris-Dakar off-road vehicles, while speeder bikes use motorcycle movement as a reference, including the way a rider leads the motion of a bike.
Skim speeders were created with Lucasfilm Games and behave more like aircraft. Fuse studied Red Bull Air Race footage and aircraft navigating slalom gates while developing the class.
Podracers sit at the fastest end of the range. Lane describes their design reference as “horse and chariot meets Formula 1”, while Bridges calls the class the game’s pinnacle racing vehicle.
The speed difference created another development challenge. Fuse built circuits capable of supporting vehicles travelling at around 300km/h through to about 1,000km/h, requiring the same environments to remain playable across a wide performance range.
The vehicles use different abilities to manage speed and cornering. Skim speeders can perform a Knife Edge manoeuvre through sharp turns, while speeder bikes use a Kinetic Burst that trades control for additional speed. Podracers rely on airbrakes through tight corners and can use Ramjets to accelerate further, while landspeeders combine drifting with Ramjet boosts.
The different vehicles feed into the Galactic League, an underground racing championship set after the fall of the Empire. A story trailer previously revealed a focus on the rivalry between a playable character named Shade and reigning champion Kestar Bool, alongside a runs-based campaign where some upgrades carry between attempts.
Where to play Star Wars: Galactic Racer
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game features Standard and Deluxe editions, both physically and digitally, with a physical-only Collector’s Edition while stocks last.
* Visit the ‘Star Wars: Galactic Racer’ website here.
