The best electric race car track is an exciting, interactive hobby for automobile fans and anyone who likes speed and competition. Slot cars make an excellent 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-slot.
We carry two top-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 may be a bit “toy,” while Scalextric is far more “hobby.” During this post, I’ll explain a number of the features of every brand to assist you to create a far better purchase.Digital vs. Analogue
Both Carrera and Scalextric offer analogue and digital formats. With an analogue set—the sort that has been around for half a century—you can only race as many cars as you’ve got lanes. Your controller adjusts the present sent to the track lane, which accelerates and slows down the car there is a particular lane. With a digital setup, the controller is programmed to regulate the car itself. Digital sets have crossover sections that allow you to modify from lane to lane for passing, blocking, and overtaking. These tracks also support more cars, in order that three or four (with some sets, up to six) people can race at an equivalent time. I’ll come back to touch later.
They allow you to build bigger and more technically challenging track layouts, and offer bigger and better opportunities for personalization and modification, especially with Scalextric’s digital sets. There is even a fanatical 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 good range of track pieces to customize your layout. Straight tracks are available in a variety of lengths and formats. A number of the unique pieces that are available include starter grids, crossovers for creating 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 almost any piece of track to assist prevent you from jumping the track. Because the track is flexible, you’ll 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 plenty of variety and challenge to your set. The track selector wheel demonstrates the range of curves available. Scalextric Digital
One of the great things about Scalextric is that the transition between analogue and digital is pretty smooth. Upgrading an analogue set would require a replacement power base, transformer, and a few lane-changing tracks, but the cars aren’t hooked into one or the opposite exclusively. Analogue cars will run on a digital set with a couple of button presses on the facility base. Lane-changing is going to be disabled, obviously, but it’s nice to understand that your old cars won’t be obsolete if you upgrade. you’ll do the other, too: a digital car will work on an analogue set, should the necessity arise. Most of the analogue cars we stock from Scalextric come “digital ready,” and maybe upgraded to digital with the straightforward installation of a microchip. And yes, like Carrera, the standard track is compatible between digital and analogue; only lane-changing elements are exclusive to digital setups.
Most digital sets from Scalextric accompany an influence base that supports up to four cars and may do a couple of neat tricks like set the cars to run either clockwise or counterclockwise. Stepping up to the Advanced Six-Car Power Base brings plenty of features, just like the ability to program various racing modes, set speed caps on individual cars, set cars to scale back speed, or maybe pause within the event that one racer jumps the track, and so on. As far as I’m concerned, however, the good feature is the ability to run ghost cars, so you’ve got some competition even when you’re racing by yourself.
