Best Rated Slot Car Race Set
Back in 2015, I decided to purchase a Carrera Digital 132 Slot Car Set. The Austrian company Carrera is best known for their high-quality slot racing sets and they have a long, long history of making these toys. Their tracks, cars, controllers and internal electric circuits are very well made. This is the AFX Giant Raceway Complete & Ready-to-Run Electric HO Slot Car Racing Set with a pair of re-designed Formula Mega G+ cars and Tri-Power systemThe 'King Kong of Slot Car Tracks'With more track pieces, more track length, more levels, more. $299.95 $259 95. Slot car track is a sizable 28 feet long. Realistic mini cars are able to reach up to 370 mph. Track features several interesting twists and turns, increasing entertainment. Able to customize with expansion kits. Product Title Nascar Style Slot Car Track Ho Scale Race Set New An. Average rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 10 reviews 10 ratings Current Price $66.39 $ 66. AFX race sets are the ideal introduction to HO slot car racing. With decades of slot car innovation, AFX race sets are the best out of the box slot car system you can buy. Getting started is easy, pick the AFX race set that best fits your budget, do some slot car racing and expand as much as you want.
Slot car racing is an exciting, interactive hobby for automobile fans and anyone who likes speed and competition. Slot cars make a great alternative to video games because they tap into similar skill sets—hand-eye coordination, risk-reward thinking, competition, manual dexterity—yet remain physical, i.e. hands-on, three-dimensional and face-to-face.
We carry two high quality slot car brands: Carrera, which tends to appeal to younger racers, and Scalextric Sport, which attracts an older audience and enthusiasts. In other words, Carrera is a little bit “toy,” while Scalextric is much more “hobby.” In this post, I’ll explain some of the features of each brand to help you make a better purchase.
Digital vs. analog
Both Carrera and Scalextric offer analog and digital formats. With an analog set—the sort that has been around for half a century—you can only race as many cars as you have lanes. Your controller adjusts the current sent to the track lane, which speeds up and slows down the car in that particular lane. With a digital setup, the controller is programmed to control the car itself. Digital sets have crossover sections that allow you to switch from lane to lane for passing, blocking, and overtaking. These tracks also support more cars, so that three or four (with some sets, up to six) people can race at the same time. I’ll come back to that a little later.
3 Questions to Help Decide What's Right for You
There are a few things to consider up front if you’re looking at a slot car set:
How old are your racers? I do not recommend slot-car racing for very young children. Ideally, a child should be eight or older, and certainly no younger than six or seven. Eight might even be pushing it for the more technical demands of an advanced Scalextric set.
You need a good deal of skill and finesse to navigate the track, especially around turns, and practice is absolutely necessary. You can’t simply haul back on the throttle and expect the cars to zoom around flawlessly. They will hop out of the slot and skitter away. Of course, that’s part of the fun. If there were no skill involved, you would get bored pretty quickly. For the most part, a child younger than 8 simply lacks the dexterity and coordination to grasp the finer points of adjusting speed to stay on track, and may not have the patience to put in the necessary practice.
Where will you put your track? The three-dimensional, hands-on, physicality of slot racing is great, but this does mean that you need space to dedicate to your layout. Even the smallest tracks are several feet across. You don’t want it in the middle of the living room where it will get stepped over—or on!—bumped, full of cookie crumbs and pet hair. The track pieces are generally pretty flexible and robust, and are designed to withstand a trodding or two, but they aren’t indestructible.
How often will you be racing? It's not a good idea to set up the track, race a few laps, and then pack it away again. The tracks are designed to be assembled and disassembled without too much effort, but only infrequently. Pulling track pieces apart is usually a little tougher than clipping them together, and can require a good deal of force. You want to make sure that you tug evenly so you don’t snap off the connector tabs that hold them together. Repeated assembly and disassembly will also eventually wear and loosen the connectors, when what you want is a snug fit.
Your best option is to set up the track in a place where it can be left out, ideally on a table or platform of some sort. Take it apart only when you want to add to or modify the layout.
Carrera
Carrera has two product lines: GO!!! (analog) and Digital 143. Both are 1:43 scale, so a little on the smaller side. Carrera GO!!! is a perfect starter line. With fun themes like Mario Kart, and Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3, and exciting “action” features like loops, jumps, elevated banks that run up walls, the tracks are ideal for children around eight years old. Sets and accessories are modestly priced, too.
Digital 143
Digital 143 is more advanced, and pricier. Digital cars, for instance, are about double the cost of analog. However, if this is the first track, starting with a digital set can be a good investment, because upgrading from analog to digital requires a bunch of new equipment, including a new powerbase, new cars, and some lane-changing track. The good news is that standard track pieces are universal, so the majority of a GO!!! setup will be ready to go should you decide to upgrade to Digital 143.
The benefit of Carrera’s digital sets is that it supports up to three cars at once and allows for lane switching. Lane changes are done by holding a button on the controller before reaching a special crossover track. For the Digital 143 line, Carrera makes crossover tracks red (or green on the MarioKart set) rather than black so you can identify them easily. Crossover tracks can be single (right-to-left, left-to-right), or double (“X”-shaped).
Scalextric
Our Scalextric sets are the better choice for hobbyists. Scalextric sets have bigger, more detailed cars (1:32 scale), some of which sport cool features like working lights and, in the case of James Bond’s Aston Martin from Goldfinger, ejector seats. They let you build bigger and more technically challenging track layouts, and offer bigger and better opportunities for customization and modification, especially with Scalextric’s digital sets.
There is even a dedicated community of Scalextric racing hobbyists, who conduct full-on tournament racing with rules and regulations. With this in mind, you’ll find that Scalextric tends toward more realism—you won’t find jumps and loops here—and more technical demands.
A Note on Track
Scalextric makes a wide range of track pieces to customize your layout. Straight tracks come in a number of lengths and formats. Some of the unique pieces that are available include starter grids, crossovers for making figure-eights, side-swipes for bumping other racers, and single-lane tracks to run alongside pit lanes. There are borders and guardrails that clip along the side of just about any piece of track to help prevent you from jumping the track. Because the track is flexible, you can give some height to your layouts with elevation supports, banked curve supports, and elevated crossovers.
There are numerous options for curves, from lazy wide turns to harrowing hairpins, crossovers and side-swipes, letting you add a ton of variety and challenge to your set.
The track selector wheel demonstrates the range of curves available. You can find lots of support atscalextric.com/uk-en/, including a download for a Track Designer to help build your layout. It’s also very easy to find online forums and communities to get ideas for customizing your setup.
Scalextric Digital
One of the nice things about Scalextric is that the transition between analog and digital is pretty smooth. Upgrading an analog set will require a new power base, transformer, and some lane-changing track, but the cars are not hooked into one or the other exclusively. Analog cars will run on a digital set with a few button presses on the power base. Lane-changing will be disabled, obviously, but it’s nice to know that your old cars won’t be obsolete if you upgrade. You can do the opposite, too: a digital car will work on an analog set, should the need arise. Most of the analog cars we stock from Scalextric come “digital ready,” and can be upgraded to digital with the simple installation of a microchip. And yes, like Carrera, standard track is compatible between digital and analog; only lane-changing elements are exclusive to digital setups.
Most digital sets from Scalextric come with a power base that supports up to four cars, and can do a few neat tricks like set the cars to run either clockwise or counterclockwise. Stepping up to the Advanced Six-Car Power Base brings a ton of features, like the ability to program various racing modes, set speed caps on individual cars, set cars to reduce speed or even pause in the event that one racer jumps the track, and so on. As far as I’m concerned, however, the coolest feature is the ability to run ghost cars, so you have some competition even when you’re racing by yourself.
ARC systems (App Race Control)
The ARC ONE, ARC AIR and ARC PRO (for digital sets) are the latest additions to Scalextric’s product lineup, which takes advantage of hand-held smart devices to add a whole new dimension to slot racing as a hobby. Set up a Bluetooth-enabled device opposite the power base and use the free iOS or Android application to create and control races, track your statistics, manage and share your collection, and more.
Before you start, you can choose from several different types of races, including Quick Race, Practice, Grand Prix, Endurance, Tournament, Drag Race, Arcade and Pace Car, although not every race is available in all ARC systems. As you play, the app monitors just about anything you can think of, from lap times and lap counts, to speed and penalties. There are several cool additions to mix things up. Turning on fuel consumption, tire wear, or car damage, means that you have to keep an eye on the condition of your car and make a stop in the pits when necessary—or risk disqualification. There are even random “incidents” like engine blow-outs and punctured tires that can bring another measure of unpredictability and realism to the race. After the race, you get analytic breakdowns of your speed, start reaction times, fuel use, and so on, which you can post to Twitter or Facebook.
Finally, there is a “Garage” mode, in which you can catalogue the cars in your collection, save track layouts, and post photos. You can also log your track pieces and accessories and use the app to explore possible layout designs.
The ARC Systems each have their own exciting features.
ARC level ARC race control system
- Hard-wired hand controllers
- Core app functionality
- Analogue system
- 2-car racing
Key features:
- Pit stops
- Post-race statistics
Mid-range ARC race control system
- 2.4Ghz wireless hand controllers
- Intermediate app functionality
- Analogue system
- 2-car racing
Key Features:
All of the features of ARC One plus:
- Wireless controllers (plus rumble)
- Variable race conditions
- Braking button
Premium ARC race control system
- 2.4GHZ wireless hand controllers
- advanced app funcitonality
- Digital system
- Multiple car racing (up to 6)
Key features:
All of the features of ARC AIR plus:
- Lane changing
- Multiple cars
- KERS boost
On your mark, get set…race!
Kids or kids at heart will surely enjoy this list as we are about to give you the best slot car tracks this 2021. Playing car tracks is great alternative entertainment that you can do with your children, especially if you both love cars and racing. To level up the experience of the slot car racing, we have the list of the top-notch car tracks that you can use to upgrade the racing experience.
Top 15 Best Slot Car Tracks in 2021 Reviews & Guides:
1. Hot Wheels Slot Car Track Pack
Hot Wheels collectors will definitely love this product because it can be an additional collection for them. This best slot car track from Hot Wheels is a 40 feet single-car tracks and connectors that you can connect together. Unleashed your creativity and build your own track, you can also use this as an extension of the track builder sets.
It has the orange color of tracks and blue connectors, the tracks are straight with two sizes. This is great for children who love to create race tracks since this is a straight track, they can easily play with this. This product is suitable for ages 4 years old and above since it has small content like the connectors.
Extra Features:
- Compatible with all Hot Wheels cars
- It comes with 1 Hot Wheels car
- With 43 connectors included
2. Carrera First Disney Cars 3 Slot Car Track Set
Children will definitely love this slot car track set from Carrera because lightning McQueen and Dinoco Cruz is in this set. A battery-operated slot car together with the 8-shaped race track is perfect for beginners.
They can control the speed of the cars, so they can win the race with their skills. The included race track has a size of 7.87 geet and 1:50 scale cars. Everything that you need to set this up is already in the box including the cars.
Extra Features:
- The race track can fit two cars at a time
- Themed decor race track
- Children 3 years old and above can play this
3. Carrera Go!!! 61600 Extension Set 1
Isn’t it nice to have a race track that doesn’t only have a straight lane? The set 1 extension set from Carerra comes with both straight and curve lanes to give the cars a little bend. The set 1 extension consists of 2 curves, 2 straight lanes with a size of 14.46 inches, and 2 lane changers.
You can combine this with your existing Carrera track, with these extensions you can create your dream race track. This product is compatible with the Carrera Go, Digital 143, and Carrera racing system. The recommended age to use this item is from 8 years old and up, you can expand your race track up to 49 feet.
Extra Features:
- Compatible with both analog and digital
- The item’s weight 1.5 pounds
- Can add with other extension sets
4. NKOK Sonic & Shadow RC Slot Car Track Set
Is your child a fanatic of Sonic and Shadow? Or maybe you are a fan of this tandem? Sonic is an iconic character that is still famous until today. Know which one is the fastest in the slot car by using this set of best slot car track.
This is not just a slot car track as it comes with two slot cars which are Sonic and Shadow, so choose your team and start the race. The track’s design is like an infinity sign or number 8. The package includes 16 pieces of track pieces, 2 vehicles, and 2 controllers. This is a great gift to all Sonic lovers out there, especially to children ages 5 years old and above.
Extra Features:
- 3 C batteries for the battery
- With working lights
- Licensed toy
5. Carrera 1:24 Slot Car Track Extension
Carrera’s next best slot car track is the 12 pieces 1:24 tracks. You can use it with your digital 1:24, 1:32, and evolution slot car track system. The good thing about Carrera’s product is that you can combine it with other extensions or set as long as it is compatible with each other.
Inside the package, it comes with 4 straights, 4 curves, 2 lane changers, and 2 chicanes. You can create any track design with the use of this; use your imagination to create the most challenging track with this product. The toy’s recommended age is 8 years old and above, as this requires electricity products.
Extra Features:
- The track’s weight is 5.56 pounds
- One of the best-selling brand in the market
- The curves are good for 4, 6, or 8 extensions of the lane
6. Carrera Go!!! 62492 Mario Kart Slot Car Track Set
If you are looking for not just an extension, but a complete set of a slot car track, check out this set from Carrera with the Mario Kart Mach 8. Kids and young at heart will love this set because who doesn’t love Mario and Luigi.
Aside from the cute cars included in the package, the race track itself is pretty awesome. It is not just a simple track; it is a 17-feet track with loop, narrow section, junction, and fly over. Watching Mario and Luigi running along the track with the speed that can reach up to 379mph is remarkable. You can use the other extension from Carrera with this track set.
Extra Features:
Top Slot Car Race Sets
- Lap counter included in the package
- Mario and Luigi Car
- Speed controllers
7. Scalextric C1383T Slot Car Track Set
The C1383T from Scalextric is one of the best slot car track set because this features the Chevy Monte Carlo. When you buy this set of a slot car track, you will get a pair of the ’86 Aero Coupe Monte Carlo, and that makes it perfect not only for children but for car collectors too.
It comes with the 15.8 feet flat track; this track can fit a foot space of 6.4 x 4.3. You can customize the track depending on what you desire; you can make up to 4 different layouts with this. Since it comes with two Chevy cars, you can place two cars at a time because the track has 2 lanes.
Extra Features:
- It is an analog racing system
- Banked curves track
- Exclusive only with Scalextric
8. Carrera 20020613 Hairpin Slot Car Tracks
If you want to add some interesting curve to your track, Carrera’s 20020613 is the best slot car track when it comes to that. When it comes to its design, it is near to the natural race track, it has the paint of red and white which you can commonly see on the real race tracks.
Inside the box, it consists of 2 standard straight tracks with 2/4 size, 3 outside shoulder curve, and 3 inside shoulder curve for the 1/60° curve. To give the race track vibe, it has the tire piles. It is a great gift since the packaging comes with a box, it has the presentable look.
Extra Features:
- Compatible with Carrera’s Digital 124 and 132, and Evolution
- The item’s weight is 5.44 pounds
- Recommended age is 8 years old and up
9. Scalextric C1399T LMP and GT Slot Car Track Set
The next entry from Scalextric is another analog race track set, but this time the cars included in the package are LMP and GT. This set is perfect for beginners and professionals as it comes with a 4-speed setting to level up in case you want to speed up the game.
It has the oval race track with a size of 8 feet and 4 inches. The design and size allow you to do the racing even on smaller space availability. It has two lanes where you can place two cars at a time to give you the real race car experience.
Extra Features:
- You can expand the track with the use of extension packs
- The car can speed up to 300mph
- Magnatraction magnets to keep the cars on track
10. Carrera 61612 High Banked Curve Track
The 61612 banked curve track from Carrera is compatible with most of their sets like the Carerra Go!!!, digital 143, and the Carrera racing system. Carrera products the best slot car track extensions that allow you to create a more exciting course.
This high banked curve gives the car the bending experience and not just the straight track. The package includes 4 pieces of curves with support to keep the racing on the track. It has the 1/45° bend design, and these overall curves only weigh 7 ounces. It is a great gift for a child or even an adult who loves expanding and creating unique race tracks.
Extra Features:
- It keeps the car on the track better
- Great as banked corners
- Can mix and match with other extensions from Carrera
11. ScalextricC8555 Slot Cark Track Extension
If you already own one of the Scalextric slot car track set and you want to expand it to create a more compelling race track, the C8555 track extension is the answer with that. You can use this for both analog and digital Scalextric which gives it a wider range of use.
This is a 1:32 Radius 3 curves in 22.5°, so if the extension that you are looking are curves, this is perfect. Inside the box are the 8 pieces of curves that you can combine with the old set you have, and it can extend the layout for over 5 feet.
Extra Features:
- The curves are flexible
- The product’s weight is 2.07 pounds
- Suitable for 8 years and above
12. AFX AFX21045 Track Pack
The AFX21045 is the ultimate track pack for this list of the best slot car track. It consists of the popular and challenging to find tracks, but don’t worry because all of these are in this package. It comes with 26 tracks, and with the use of this extension, you can turn the smallest track into a giant one of up to 34.5 feet.
Inside the box, you will see 11 pieces of 15 straight track, 3 pieces of 9 inches squeeze track, 6 pieces of 12 inches radius curve track, and 6 pieces of 15 inches radius curve track. All of these tracks are in one purchasing, so you can create a much difficult and fun course.
Extra Features:
- Compatible with the entire AFX track
- With extra bridge support
- Specifically made for HO scale
13. Carrera 21130 Tire Stack Slot Car Track
Aiming for a more realistic track? This Carrera 21130 gives you the real race track vibe when you attach these curves as your extension. The design of this track is the tire stacks guardrail wall, it is common on most race tracks in real life.
The package comes with 6 sets of tire stacks and each of them has a size of 10 inches long. There is a 24 tire wall that will support the tire section in one place. You can use this extension to other Carrera track set like the digital 124, 132, and evolution.
Extra Features:
- This is a 1:24 race track
- Comes with a box for presentable packaging
- The item is 10.6 ounces
14. Scalextric American Police Slot Car Track Set
Scalextric knows how to make the track race much interesting, and one of their best slot car tracks is the American police chasing the Didge Challenger on a 17 feet 5 inches race track.
The track has crash borders and barriers to make it look realistic. This race track has the 1:32 scale track system, meaning any cars from Scalextric or even not form Scalextric with 1:32 scale is good in this track. Start the chasing and see who will win the race.
Extra Features:
- Two cars included in the package
- Light controllers with ergonomic design
- Easy magnatraction
15. Scalextric Lamborghini C1386T Slot Car Race Track Set
The C1386T is the last entry for our best slot car track, and this track set is not just the typical track set that you can buy. This set comes with the Lamborghini Rampage Centenarios with 1:32 scale, this is a great toy not only for children but for adults too.
Best Slot Car Racing Brand
The size of the track is 15 feet 9 inches, and you can do 4 layouts of tracks for an endless amount of fun. Connecting the tracks together is very easy; it will just take a couple of minutes to connect it all together.
What Are The Best Slot Car Racing Sets
Extra Features:
- Standard analog set
- Lap counter
- Can give you the speed of 0-60mph in just 3 seconds
Conclusion:
Slot car tracks are not just only for children, but also for people who are young at hearts. These best slot car tracks can give you the genuine race track feeling that you and your children can enjoy at home.