Mario Kart World is courting controversy with a new update that makes it even harder to play traditional three-lap races, but Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has been planning to make a very similar change since the beginning.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, veteran Sonic producer Takashi Iizuka said that early in the development process on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Sega was trying to come up with a fresh new idea for the new iteration. In that brainstorming session, he says, "we had this idea that we've had this three-lap course up until now - it's always once, twice, three times around. What if that's the thing that we change?"
