The Outer Rim is your highway in Star Wars Galactic Racer, but it's more than Burnout in space: "You can’t make a Star Wars racing experience and not have Podracing"

Announced at The Game Awards 2025, Star Wars Galactic Racer looks like a high-octane racer that many of us didn't know we needed. Set against the backdrop of the Outer Rim, renowned as the most dangerous place in the Star Wars universe, Galactic Racers aims to fill a very particular niche in the landscape of racing games – and its developer has a track record of delivering the goods.

"We believe this style of high speed, intense, aggressive, track-based arcade racing hasn't been fully served for modern HD gamers," Fuse Games CEO and co-founder Matt Webster tells GamesRadar+. He should know: Fuse is something of a household name for gearheads, having brought us some of the most iconic and best racing games of all time. While Galactic Racer's "pick up and play" ethos riffs off car beat-'em-up Burnout's own brand of simple, approachable fun, it's also an authentic upcoming Star Wars game with "real depth across all the systems", including progression "in tune with the depth of mastery and replayability that racing brings," according to Webster.

Paired with dense customization tools, a fleet of familiar and new vehicle types, and challenging landscapes you'll recognize from the best Star Wars games, it seems Galactic Racer is burning serious rubber on its quest to make racing nerdy again.

Eat my spacedust

Slick vehicle handling and a smooth driving experience is just the tip of the asteroid. One thing many Star Wars fans might be wondering (including GamesRadar+) is whether, on top of the landspeeders and speedbikes we've glimpsed in Galactic Racer's reveal trailer, we might be sitting behind the wheel of the franchise's most iconic cruiser when the game launches later in 2026.

Webster has good news. "You can’t really make a Star Wars racing experience and not have Podracing, can you? The core fantasy of the game is becoming an elite racing pilot in the Galactic League, and Podracing is a pinnacle of speed and racing in the Star Wars galaxy," he says.

"However, when we set out to create Galactic Racer, we wanted to do more – to lean into multiple vehicle types and multiple expressions of speed to give players a breadth of experiences. Galactic Racer offers players the ability to pilot vehicles they know and love, alongside ones they won’t have experienced before, across a range of solo and multiplayer modes."

The competitive element is crucial for a solid racing game, but whether you intend to take on the Outer Rim solo or with a fellow adrenaline junkie, you'll be able to adjust your camera perspective to your liking.

Galactic Racer's primary viewpoint is third person – "we spend an enormous amount of effort on this camera in particular as it drives so much of our game feel," says Webster – but it's not a one-size deal. Some perspectives bring you "closer to the vehicle," showcasing "the sense of speed and, of course, situational awareness that you need when close-in racing". Meanwhile, first-person pilot view amps up the immersive, cinematic feel. These are "critical elements that you want in a Star Wars title," Webster notes, intended to deliver a literal front-row seat to the roadside mayhem.

Spit and polish

But when you're not putting the pedal to the metal, what else is there to do in Star Wars Galactic Racer? Get beneath the hood, of course.

The Outer Rim is a lawless frontier, so it makes sense that Galactic Racer comes stocked with all sorts of (probably illegal) modifications, cosmetic looks, and other ways to fine-tune your ride. "Building your very own Star Wars racecraft is a dream I'm sure many of us have had for a long time and how you show up on the track is often as important as how well you race – especially against friends," hints Webster. Beauty's not skin-deep in this game, though, as "players will be able to not just modify the look of the vehicle, but its performance characteristics, too."

It's a tasty albeit small tidbit, but it'll have to suffice for now. Fuse is still sitting on a lot of the details, but Webster assures us that more is on the way as 2026 unfurls. Until then, we'll have to keep an eye on the stars for the proverbial finish line – and maybe rewatch the best Star Wars movies to get into character, too.