Unless you’re a modder who found the MotoX test map in THPS4 or really love the vehicle part of Underground, people don’t exactly picture racing when they hear of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Because we’re a motorsports publication, we’re happy to inform you that yes, there are two skaters in the lineup for the upcoming 3 + 4 who have raced competitively and particularly in off-road.

Letícia Bufoni is making her third appearance in the series after debuting in a post-release patch for Pro Skater 5. The Brazilian is one of the top women skateboarders today and has also been a racing fan since her youth. Although her skating career took priority as she grew up, the six-time X Games gold medalist and 2020 Olympian has since been re-immersing herself into motorsports in recent years.

In October 2022, Bufoni joined the Nitro Rallycross weekend at ERX as an SxS driver. With no practice, she finished seventh and sixth in the two races. She then ran the full 2023–24 SxS calendar in the rebranded Nitrocross, placing fifth in points with a best run of fifth in Utah Race 1. Bufoni did not race the 2024–25 season’s two rounds before its cancellation as her focus was on endurance racing in Porsche Cup Brasil.

Bufoni also dabbled in desert racing in 2023, competing in the NORRA 500 alongside Formula DRIFT champ Chris Forsberg. The two split driving duties in a Nissan Frontier, with Bufoni doing the second leg on Day 1 and the first half on Day 2; when not racing, she was in a chase truck.

“At first I was a little scared, but as soon as we started racing, I just picked up everything super quick and had a great time,” Bufoni told Off Road Xtreme in 2024.

Bucky Lasek, who boasts ten X Games golds on the halfpipe and has been a mainstay of the Tony Hawk series since the first title in 1999, also had escapades in rallycross during the 2010s. He was a factory driver for Subaru in the Global RallyCross Championship from 2012 to 2016, scoring a best points finish of eighth in 2014.

Lasek also notched his only non-skating X Games medal when he finished second to Scott Speed at X Games Austin 2014.

While no longer doing rallycross (not that he’s had much opportunity given the discipline’s instability in America), Lasek’s continued to be behind the wheel in rallying. He’s dabbled in Rally America and the American Rally Association since 2016, making his debut at the Sno*Drift Rally with Subaru Rally Team USA. In June, he finished eighth overall and second in L4WD at the ARA’s Southern Ohio Forest Rally in a 2011 Impreza WRX STi for Argonaut Motor Club.

While Lasek and Bufoni are the only people to appear in a Tony Hawk game and have professional racing experience (which excludes ridealongs and the Birdman himself, who’s done the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race and starred in the 2007 Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race), the pool does increase somewhat when accounting for sister series. The late Dave Mirra, namesake of the Dave Mirra’s Pro BMX games, was Lasek’s teammate in GRC. For a more tenuous one, Travis Pastrana is an unlockable skater in the THPS4 water-based counterpart Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 will be released on July 11. A demo of the Foundry level in THPS3 and College from THPS4 has been available since June for players who pre-ordered or won an access code as part of the game’s partnership with Taco Bell.

Featured image credit: Ivan Lanz / Red Bull Content Pool