The last time Star Wars dabbled in racing games, Attack of the Clones was still months away from release. 24 years later, the franchise will try its hand at the racing genre once more.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer was revealed at The Game Awards on Thursday, with a release planned sometime in 2026. It will be developed by Fuse Games and published by Secret Mode. Lucasfilm Games will oversee the project as they do with all SW titles.

Fuse was founded in 2023 by former employees of Criterion Games, who developed the Burnout series and Need for Speed. With their racing résumé, they were tasked with the vehicle and space combat gameplay for DICE’s Star Wars Battlefronts I and II; Criterion also made an X-Wing VR mission for the first Battlefront to promote Rogue One.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Star Wars typically doesn’t do racing games and instead favors genres like shooters and action-adventure. The only true motorsports titles were at the turn of the millennium after podracing was heavily featured in The Phantom Menace.

Star Wars Episode I: Racer was released in 1999 to tie into TPM, available on virtually every console of the time and becoming a best seller. An arcade version came out in 2000 followed by Racer Revenge in 2002. A PS2 exclusive developed by Rainbow Studios of ATV Offroad Fury and MX vs. ATV fame, Racer Revenge was the last full-fledged Star Wars game of the genre.

Super Bombad Racing was sandwiched between Arcade and Revenge, but was more a quirky big-headed chibi kart racer. It was perhaps too whimsical for the market and was the only non-podracer of the three to come out during this stretch.

The genre didn’t get much love in the decades since. LEGO Star Wars had a podracing level, while Knights of the Old Republic and The Old Republic had swoop racing minigames. Otherwise, you were probably more likely to see Star Wars in real-life racing than in a video game.

Still, Lucasfilm and Fuse were willing to tap into the latter’s repertoire to revisit it.

“When a team with such amazing racing chops like Fuse proposed a new expression of racing in a galaxy far, far away, it was a true no brainer decision,” Lucasfilm Games general manager Douglas Reilly told StarWars.com in an interview released in tandem with the trailer. “One of the great things about Star Wars is that it can be a perfect fit for many genres and audiences. We are always looking for new and creative ways to revisit genres fans have enjoyed in the past and find unique expressions in the future.

“Lucasfilm Games has a long and successful relationship with many of the key leaders at Fuse Games from their time at Criterion, including their work on Star Wars Battlefront II Starfighter Mode. In addition to the great work on our projects, they have been industry leaders in some of the most beloved racing franchises in Need for Speed and Burnout. I can’t think of any other studio better suited to bring Star Wars racing back to our fans.”

With apologies to Boonta Eve Classic champion Anakin Skywalker, but much like flying an N-1 starfighter, Galactic Racer is not podracing. Most of the pilots in the trailer are on speeder bikes and landspeeders, while vehicle customization will be available.

“We have a range of racing repulsorcraft for players to discover in the game, each of which have unique handling characteristics to master,” Fuse co-founder Matt Webster offered. “Speeder bikes, for example, are fast and ferocious, you’ll be braking heavily into corners, really leaning in and then massive drops of acceleration as you power your way through the exit. Also notice that in many of our events, our different speeder classes race at the same time, with exciting physical interactions as those differing racing lines come together.”

The story takes place after the Galactic Civil War and in the tumultuous early years of the New Republic as the galaxy’s sole power. The Galactic League is a newly formed and illegal racing championship where competitors are backed by crime syndicates, and naturally with dangerously high stakes.

Shade serves as the protagonist, a figure whom Webster said is a “lone racer with a dream of glory and revenge”. Sebulba, the antagonist podracer from The Phantom Menace, is confirmed to return.

Planets like Jakku and Ando Prime were featured in the trailer. The former is best known for its presence in The Force Awakens, while the latter was previously in Racer. Sentinel One, described by Webster as a “toxic wasteland that’s been plundered for materials”, will make its debut.

Galactic Racer was one of two Star Wars games unveiled at The Game Awards alongside Fate of the Old Republic.

Official reveal trailer

Featured image credit: Fuse / Lucasfilm Games