"Crash Team Racing" received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. "Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine" described "Crash Team Racing" as "the game that made kart racing cool" and proclaimed that "nothing has ever matched its quality." "Electronic Gaming Monthly" noted that the game was "heavily inspired by "Mario Kart", but still an amazing multiplayer racer." Doug Perry of IGN stated that the game was "rock solid" in playability and graphics, but was critical of "the insanely capitalistic smile of Crash." Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot called the game "a great "Mario Kart" clone", and that it succeeded where similar games like "Mega Man Battle & Chase", "Bomberman Fantasy Race", "Diddy Kong Racing", "Chocobo Racing" and "Mario Kart" had failed. Johnny Liu of "GameRevolution" concluded that despite the fact that the game "doesn't add much to the tired genre, it manages to do everything well."