Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush Is All About Exploring an Open-World Toy Box | IGN Preview

The caller slate of Hot Wheels video games from developer Milestone truly captures that youthful wonderment and excitement of unpacking caller artifact cars from the container and racing them down those twisting, orangish playset tracks. With 2 Hot Wheels games nether their belt, on with the underrated anime-racing crippled Screamer, the creators astatine Milestone are taking different plaything astatine a caller Hot Wheels arcade racer – but this time, they're taking the monolithic enactment of artifact cars into an open-world playset.

At Summer Game Fest 2026, we were capable to get our archetypal hands-on with Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush, which moves distant from dedicated tracks acceptable wrong surviving rooms and imaginary landscapes and into aggregate open-world zones packed with missions and opportunities. It's a large accommodation for a Hot Wheels racing game, but it besides has large ambitions to elevate the artifact car-racing series.

The halfway conception of Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush leans into the thought of taking your enactment of Hot Wheels cars disconnected the nostalgic orangish tracks and into the open-world playset, filled with oddities to uncover and caller challenges to instrumentality on. Much similar the caller Lego Batman upgrade to an open-world Batman Arkham-style game, Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush makes the leap to an unfastened satellite that feels precise akin to Burnout Paradise, which makes for a amusive acceptable for the Hot Wheels world.

Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush makes the leap to an unfastened satellite that feels precise akin to Burnout Paradise.“

With Infinite Rush, you're fixed a ample grade of state to thrust astir and instrumentality connected challenges arsenic you wish. With implicit 150 cars to take from – which are acceptable crossed antithetic conveyance types similar speeder, titan, and the versatile people – you tin contiguous a enactment of favourite vehicles and freely swap betwixt them successful betwixt missions erstwhile driving around. With your unchangeable of artifact cars set, you're prepared to research the open-zone playset successful your ain way.

When truly diving in, you're escaped to thrust astir and origin chaos connected the streets and successful the assorted tracks scattered astir the zone. While you person halfway objectives, the existent amusive is making your way to instrumentality successful each the broadside missions located connected the map. These missions see accepted races against different drivers, time-trials wherever you request to scope a destination, conveyance transportation missions, and adjacent demolition derby-style missions wherever you person to origin arsenic overmuch biology harm arsenic you can. But 1 of the much entertaining missions I recovered focused connected uncovering adjacent landmarks and snapping photos for the album.

In the 2 zones I got to thrust done – the open-city metropolis Wheelworld, and the concern godforsaken municipality Gearworld – I got to truly instrumentality successful the diorama-style unfastened worlds. They felt precise overmuch similar exploring those wildly over-the-top and enticing playsets you would spot successful artifact commercials that were ne'er disposable for existent purchase. It's a amusive mounting to thrust through, and I truly liked however charming and chaotic these diorama worlds were. My favourite spot was driving done Gearworld and seeing a elephantine scorpion spewing venom onto the map, which made maine deliberation backmost to those energetic commercials with bizarre hazards the artifact cars had to avoid.

But of course, there's inactive plentifulness of accepted racing enactment to instrumentality portion in, and Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush truly dials up the strength successful that context. Much similar accepted arcade racers, Infinite Rush truly goes for the accelerated and escaped attack to racing, which keeps the absorption connected trying to support momentum, portion giving you plentifulness of slack to accommodate to these radically antithetic environments. Each conveyance benignant besides has antithetic strategies and tradeoffs erstwhile getting down the wheel. While the titan people is dense and tin easy propulsion speech vehicles, it besides has to negociate its vigor gauge erstwhile boosting, oregon other it'll stall out.

The halfway contention events are not lone astir racing done the streets and backmost roads of the playsets, but besides astir merging onto those acquainted agleam orangish tracks to truly hone successful connected choky racing moments. Compared to the erstwhile Hot Wheels games, Infinite Rush adds a caller level of chaos to the action, heightening the consciousness that these artifact contention cars are coming to beingness and wreaking havoc.

Infinite Rush aims to bring the '80s and '90s Hot Wheels artifact commercials to life.

Still, adjacent with the propulsion to a much open-world racing game, determination are plentifulness of those acquainted orangish tracks to contention connected and adjacent physique up yourself. Though I wasn't capable to get hands-on with it successful my preview, the way exertion from erstwhile games besides makes a return. Players who are keen connected creating their ain racing venues volition not lone person much tools to use, but besides the added abstraction of the unfastened zones to physique on.

From my 30 minutes of hands-on time, I truly came to admit the consciousness of state of taking my chosen vehicles retired into the field. The Burnout Paradise-style open-world racing is simply a large acceptable for the toy-car satellite of Hot Wheels, arsenic the absorption connected exploration offers a amazingly charming abstraction to teardrop my mode through. Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush is precise overmuch a surviving artifact container of a satellite to unravel, and truthful far, developer Milestone has got a large conception for its large upgrade for Hot Wheels racing games.

Alessandro Fillari is simply a longtime games media professional. Talk video games with him connected BlueSky astatine @afillari.bsky.social.