Betson & Raw Thrills Teases New Racer For IAAPA 2019

As mentioned in the last post to the site, the latter-half of October tends to be a time for game teases and reveals, and we’ve got another one to throw your way.

This morning, distribution company Betson sent out a newsletter that teased a new arcade video game by Raw Thrills. While the title and cabinet are not revealed, there is a silhouette of the game in the image, definitely showing a driving title of some kind. This will be showcased at the Betson booth (#615), where Raw Thrills always combines forces for big trade shows:

(Note that when clicking on the Learn More link, it takes you to this page, which does not reveal what it is)

Looking at that silhouette, it definitely appears to have re-purposed the Cruis’n Blast cabinet, as the shape of the seat is the same, with big tires in the lower back. It also maintains the slim canopy/enclosure idea from Cruis’n, but uses more of a rollcage design. The upper right part of the marquee also looks like it could be a stock car – but as Alex N. pointed out on a social media post, it could just as easily be a truck. I did think of that when I first saw the image and noticed that the tire part of the cabinet looks more like an offroad/4×4 tire than a NASCAR tire.

Now my first guess at the moment is that this is a new NASCAR title, given the second part of the tease in the image. I really can’t imagine that they would go to the length of bringing out a NASCAR driver and his car to promote Big Buck, while a completely different driving game sits near-by. The rollcage design also seems to fit with the NASCAR motif, so it’s a pretty safe bet at this point.

But, it also could be a 4×4 offroading game, perhaps a spiritual successor to Offroad Thunder (like Raw Thrills did with Hydro Thunder/H2Overdrive).

Under the safe bet assumption, this would not be the first, nor the second time that NASCAR has been made into a video arcade game…it will be the fourth. The first time was from Sega back in 2000; then GlobalVR enjoyed the height of their business when they produced EA Sports NASCAR in 2007 and followed-up with that in 2010 with NASCAR Team Racing. How another NASCAR game will set itself apart (aside from new graphics and a flashier cabinet) is anyone’s guess, but we only have to wait a few weeks to find out.

Also note that Big Buck Reloaded will be there to check out too…I imagine we could also see another surprise, as the company likes to have a game or two there out of the blue.

If it’s a different IP completely than our guesses, then ignore most of that and just know that Raw Thrills has their first driver coming to the market since Cruis’n Blast launched at the very end of 2016. What do you think?