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12 Star Wars: Galactic Racer Tips To Help You Avoid Crashing And Burning
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is out now on PS5, Xbox, and PC. And it is one of the best games of 2026, combining fast racing, arcade action, and roguelike elements into one of the best Star Wars games around. However, Galactic Racer can also be a difficult game that doesn’t teach you everything about how it works.
So, to help you on your mission to take down smug champion Kestar Bool, I’ve rounded up a dozen spoiler-free tips for Galactic Racer. I can’t guarantee you’ll win every race, but hopefully I can help you make some credits and survive a few more laps.
Galactic Racer can be a challenging racing game where a single mistake can cost you everything. It also features NPC racers who will slam you off-track whenever they get a chance. Not to mention, you’ll need to understand all the various parts you can unlock, master different boosts, and learn shortcuts. It’s a lot! So, uh…be prepared to lose races in the campaign. It’s going to happen, and it’s okay, because…
In Galactic Racer‘s main tour mode, surviving a race to continue the tour is more important than risking it all to try to win one event, because if, in the process of pursuing glory, you screw up and crash too many times, you’ll have to restart the whole thing. While there are times when you’ll have to win to keep going, most events and races in Galactic Racer‘s single-player mode aren’t that punishing. It’s better to finish 4th, collect some credits, buy a new upgrade or part, and live to race in the next event.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer has three types of vehicles you can choose from during the tour mode. There’s the reliable landspeeder, which can drift around corners easily and take a beating. Or you can choose the nimble and tiny speeder bike, which gets a turbo boost when you exit a drift. And lastly, there’s the skimmer, which isn’t the most nimble around the track, but it hits hard and can leave opponents in the dust on straightaways.
I spent a lot of time driving the landspeeder as it suited my more defensive playstyle. But all three can be powerful racing vehicles; you just need to pick the one that works best for you, and don’t be afraid to experiment with other options.
As you complete events and win races in the main mode, you’ll have a chance to improve your speeder’s overall stats, including how well your vehicle drifts or how much damage it can take. Those are useful stats, sure, but the two I recommend upgrading whenever you can are cornering and speed. Improving your cornering skill will let you zip around turns faster and tighter, which can come in clutch in close races. And speed makes you go faster, which it turns out is good in a race.
While the main appeal of Star Wars: Galactic Racer will be the big story mode, featuring cutscenes and rivals, don’t sleep on the other single-player events available from the start. These include races and time trials where you get behind the yoke of different vehicles and play as different racers across the game’s various tracks. These aren’t just fun; they’re useful, too. They’ll help you learn tracks in a less demanding and stressful environment compared to the tour, where one bad crash or failure can screw you over in the long run.
This isn’t the most groundbreaking tip to include on a list of tips for a racing game, but it’s worth mentioning: Look for and use shortcuts whenever possible. Some shortcuts in Galactic Racer are very minor and won’t give you much of an advantage. Meanwhile, other shortcuts are game changers that can help you hop to the lead or cut multiple seconds off a time-trial run. So learn those shortcuts and use them. Just be careful, as they can be dangerous at high speed.
As you upgrade your ship and win races, you’ll have chances to unlock and equip various speeder abilities. These are powerful gadgets that you can activate during a race to gain an advantage or protect yourself from damage. One of the best is the shield ability, which wraps your speeder in a protective energy bub