Alien Racers is a 2005 sci-fi CGI animated series by Mike Young Productions and CGCG Inc that aired on 4Kids TV and Teletoon.

Xenoc, the heart of the universe, holds the valuable energy source known as Xeno-energy. It has the power to create or destroy. For eons, this cosmic energy gathered and destroyed civilizations until the wisest and oldest species, Zenterrans, managed to land containment chambers on the planet surface, which they built with the help of Fyran mechanics. Fearing that every race would be warring over the contained energy, the Zenterran Master Khadan issued a contest. Each alien civilization would choose a champion to race for this great power, and whoever controls the most Xeno-energy will decide the fate of the universe.

The champions who compete for Xeno cells include Ultrox, a cyborg Alpharon scientist, G'rog, a Na'tal athlete, Gnarl, a Kragnan war commander, and Skrash, a skeletal undead creature who is Xenoc's only native resident. The four champions compete fiercely over the chance to acquire the tremendous power of Xeno energy, to use it for good...or for evil.

Alien Racers contain examples of:

• A God Am I: Undermaster Akhil's endgame for the end of the series is amassing enough Xeno Energy to become a god unto himself.
• Alien Hair: Jek has green tendrils instead of hair.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Ultrox has orange skin, while his sidekick Jek is green. Zenterrans have orange-yellow skins, and their torsos are vaguely shell-esque. Kragnans come in all colors, with basic Claw Troopers tending to come in shades of brown, while the Kragnan Empress is Purple Is Powerful, Gnarl is a dull red, and Kreff is green by default.
• Amusing Injuries: Skrash is often on the receiving end of this, being frequently whacked or blown flying, and having his limbs (or head) wind up pointed in unnatural directions. Given that he's an indestructible undead skeleton, it doesn't faze him much.
  • Ultrox, too, is sometimes separated from his fully cybernetic legs, and in at least one instance Gamekeeper Kytani uses them to give Skrash a beating, then sneaks in a pun about it in one of the first hints of her Defrosting Ice Queen status.
  • Most characters tend to be liable to take a tumble in combat, and be Made of Iron enough that it's no big deal, and even most powerful-weapon attacks rarely leave a mark unless multiple hits are landed. Similarly, the highly weaponized races and frequent crashes are almost never seen as a concern (though they're admittedly sometimes rightly seen as a highly dangerous sport in-universe), nor do they often cause anyone lasting injury.
• An Arm and a Leg: Ultrox lost all of his limbs to Xeno energy, leading to his reconstruction as a cyborg.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In the third episode, Ultrox confronts Master Khadan on Necraal breaching the Xeno-chamber and triggering Akhil's trap that wipes out most of his species, despite being warned;
  Khadan: You were there. The commander seemed...uncertain. It could have gone either way.
  Ultrox: But it didn't. Did it?
• Ax-Crazy: Skrash. Being a long-undead zombie alone on a radioactive planet doesn't do wonders to your sanity.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The main antagonists of the series have little connection to one another's motivations: The Kragnan Empress races her champion Gnarl with the goal of acquiring Xeno energy to conquer the galaxy, Skrash races with the intention of driving everyone else off Xenoc which he insists is his planet, and Seadrok is a wealthy gangster who only seeks to make money from gambles and bets off of the races. Warcoil wants to destroy the relative peace the races have fostered by destroying the races themselves, in order to restore the profitability of his higher-ups' arms-dealing, and Undermaster Akhil wants to use xeno-energy to restore his body and increase his own supernatural power to godlike levels.
• Bizarre Alien Limbs: G'rog has three prehensile tendrils emerging from his head, while Kragnans make up for all 6 of their limbs ending in singular lethal blades with their prehensile claw-tongues they often use as hand-substitutes for fine manipulation where needed.
• The Blank: Downplayed with Zenterrans, who have no noses or mouths (how they speak is unclear, whether it's telepathy or if they're using Psychic Powers or natural organs to create soundwaves) and empty eyesockets - though the lattermost is made less unnerving by their eyesockets' puppet-esque design and seeming natural to their alien design - and tend to be The Stoic, but have expressive eyesockets they use to indicate emotion nonetheless.
• Blood Knight: Gnarl lives for combat, for the glory of the Kragnan empire!
  • Most Kragnans more generally are eager for and glorify combat and violence.
  • Even G'rog seems to enjoy a good fight when he gets into one, though in his case he's more of a Challenge Seeker, and also similarly enjoys every other non-combat challenge he gets into, such as the races and his various other stunts and competitions, making him more of a Spirited Competitor.
• Brain Food: The Kragnans eat the brains of their victims to assimilate their knowledge, a fate that befell Jek's uncle. They cannot, however, consume Xenterran brains as the overwhelming psychic power is fatal to both them and their victim. At least, until Kreff gets a few upgrades...
• Captain Ersatz: The Xenterrans, being advanced mouthless, psychic humanoids who are unable to be assimilated by an insectoid race, greatly echo the Protoss from Star Craft. Said insectoids, the Kragnans, are led by a queen, build organic vehicles and conquer large sections of the galaxy, being quite similar to the Zerg.
• Challenge Seeker: G'rog, the greatest athlete in the universe, who excels at every form of competition and loves to pull crazy stunts and embrace every opportunity to compete or challenge himself.
• Chameleon Camouflage: Kreff and the New-Breed Kragnans can change their color at will, impersonate other Kragnans, and even turn invisible.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Skrash may make temporary allegiances with enemies but betrays them once their allegiance has expired. After all, he's on nobody's side but his own...
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: If someone's in trouble, Ultrox is usually the one who goes to save them, even if it means breaking a rule and being disqualified.
• Cool Car: Most of the vehicles qualify, each of the main characters' race cars having a unique design and being heavily armed and armored enough as to functionally amount to an APC, as well as (natch) being fast and agile enough to race competitively against each other!
• Companion Cube: G'rog treats his vehicle as his "baby". Justified as the Battle-Synth is explicitly an Organic Technology living vehicle, and shows hints of sapience by sometimes audibly responding to G'rog's affection or other interactions with it with various organic grumblings and sounds.
  • Ultrox, too, often speaks and refers to the Vacon (his vehicle) as though they were a companion to him. While fully mechanical, the Vacon does have an AI system capable of verbally acknowledging, responding to, and implementing his verbal commands.
• Cyborg: Main character Ultrox is one, having all 4 of his limbs made out of metal (including one of his hands being replaced by a multi-function gatling weapon), and much of his torso also visibly made out of metal (and incorporating a chest-mounted holoprojector). Everything below his waist is cybernetic, with his legs sometimes coming detached from the rest of his body, and though nothing is verbally said about it, when piloting his vehicle Vacon he visually seems to partially merge with it, his legs and electronic spinal cord plugging into it rather than merely sitting down in a control chair.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Gamekeeper Kytani is cold and stoic at first, though she gradually develops feelings for Ultrox, though she maintains an overall impartial demeanor.
• The Don: Seadrok, a sports promoter and ruthless crime boss. Episodes featuring him usually involve him interfering with the Races to turn a profit.
• Drives Like Crazy: All the racers to some extent, but Skrash takes it up a notch.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Ordinary Kragnans are bad enough by human standards, with their naturally armored and armed bodies, and explosive bile shots that virtually equal artillery strikes, but Kreff, their best new-breed warrior and alleged "scientist", takes it up yet another notch with the enhancements he gains in "At All Costs". Key among them is enough Super-Toughness to survive eating a Zenterran brain, previously considered a suicidal act for Kragnans, and Voluntary Shapeshifting allowing him to impersonate any other species up to and including Zenterrans, rather than merely other Kragnans.
• Enemy Mine: G'rog and Gnarl are forced to fight side-by-side when trapped in the Xeno energy reactor core and being assaulted by security droids.
• Evil vs. Evil: Skrash and Gnarl tend to have much tension between each other a lot.
• Expressive Mask: Skrash somehow makes facial expressions despite being a skeleton, while the Xenterrans mostly emote with their empty eye sockets (as described under The Blank) and four arms and hands.
• Eye Scream: Minor villain Okular steals his victims' eyeballs and keeps said eyeballs alive as weapons.
• Fantastic Racism: Undermaster Akhil, one of the Xenterrans, despises the Kragnans for his father's death and deliberately baits them into the Xeno energy chamber to exterminate their whole species.
  • To a lesser extent, Ultrox is always wary of the Kragnans, which Kreff exploits to make Ultrox seem unfairly racist in front of Gamekeeper Kytani.
• Fixing the Game: Seadrok is not above trying to tampering with a race to turn a tidy profit.
• For Science!: Unlike the other racers who compete for power, Ultrox's main motivation is to study the Xeno energy, being a scientist.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Jek, who is often shown to make on-the-fly improvements, repairs, or tweaks to Vacon and other vehicles with implausibly few resources, and it's often implied to be his species' hat, with others often being rightly concerned about his MacGyvering abilities and his feats often explained simply with "he's a Fyron".
• Genius Bruiser: Ultrox may be a brilliant scientist, but he can also pack quite a punch.
• The Generation Gap: A variant between Gnarl and Kreff, the New-Breed scientist. Kreff believes that the now-extinct generation of Claw Troopers were weak and stupid, much to the anger of Gnarl, who respected them as the ones who built the Kragnan empire.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: The Kragnans are a homicidal evil race bent on using Xeno energy for controlling the entire galaxy. However, given the Xenterrans' neutral stance, they are allowed to compete in the races as fair play.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: A subtle inversion with the Xenterrans, as most of them have male voices, levitate, and remain above combat while relying on defensive measures and superior technology, teleportation, and occasional telekinesis or other mental powers. The explicitly female Gamekeeper Kytani - although also having a powerful blasting staff she's willing and able to use at range - either walks on her own two feet or uses a hoverbike, has no qualms about (often necessarily) using or threatening violence to enforce the race rules (and starting-hangar 'truce'), and is equally fully prepared to get into close quarters combat with either her staff or fists.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Skrash often teams up with the rest of the racers but is quick to turn on them once their common problem is solved.
• Hidden Depths: Skrash usually claims to race solely out of hatred to everyone else, but after he is suspended from racing he's clearly upset, showing that he genuinely enjoys racing even not as a means to acquire Xeno energy.
• Honor Before Reason: In "At All Costs", despite Gnarl volunteering to effectively be a suicide bomber for Kreff's plan to cause chaos and allow the Kragnans to invade Xenoc, Kreff refuses to allow his father to sacrifice himself that way and breaks free from his planned confinement to try and stop Gnarl from dying. The thing is, Kreff does so in a way that exposes his new shapeshifting to the Racers and Xenterrans when they were previously unaware of that trump card. Worse, when Gnarl activates the Xeno booster that would destroy his car to try and force Kreff to jump off, the latter refuses, proving willing to die as well. The thing is, Kreff's recently acquired knowledge from the Xenterran tech on how to manipulate Xeno energy was the linchpin of the Kragnan invasion plan, and if he dies, that plan goes up in flames. Even though Skrash hijacks the Stone Claw and kicks both Kragnans off, unintentionally saving them both, Kreff's actions still end up ensuring the failure of the invasion plan, with the Kragnan Empress forced to call off the armada.
• Interspecies Romance: Hinted at between Ultrox and Gamekeeper Kytani.
• Language Equals Thought: Talanna, a henchman of Seadrok, is a member of a savage and primitive race whose language allegedly has only six words (with five being about brutal murder).
• Large Ham: G'rog is a bit of the arrogant type, being his planet's famous star athlete and all.
• Last of His Kind: Skrash is the last "surviving" member of a long-extinct species that crash-landed onto Xenoc long ago. Not even he remembers just how long ago.
  • Gnarl, too, qualifies as at least a Downplayed example, as the rest of his generation of Kragnans were wiped out by Akhil's programmed xeno-energy burst (save for the Empress), and replaced by the New Breed.
• Lovable Lizard: The reptilian G'rog is a rather jolly and endearing fellow who is Vitriolic Best Buds with Ultrox.
• Made of Iron: Skrash can take absurd amounts of punishment, including being caught in a reactor explosion, being blasted into space, and then reentering the atmosphere. Being undead, of course, helps.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: G'rog resembles a cross between a lizard, a frog and a snake, while Kragnans, like Gnarl, combine features of scorpions, crabs, and anglerfish.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: The Kragnans like threatening to eat the other characters, which given their brain-slurping tendencies isn't all too unfounded.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Gamekeeper Kytani, like the rest of the Xenterrans, has four arms, and is a skilled fighter when need be. G'rog's prehensile tendrils also make good use in a fight.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: In the third episode, Undermaster Akhil is punished for using mind-control by having his being disintegrated and absorbed by the Xenterrans. His last words have him boast that he anticipated this outcome and that it serves his plans.
  Akhil: I am Undermaster Akhil. I manipulated the entire universe, including the Xenterrans, to exact my vengeance! Do you truly believe I did not plan for this as well? (Evil Laugh) Remember me as I was, but more importantly, fear what I shall become.
• Nested Mouths: Kragnans' tongues are tipped with a three-clawed appendage which can fire corrosive, explosive volleys of acidic spit.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ultrox is frequently disqualified, penalized, and otherwise given dressing-downs by Gamekeeper Kytani due to technically breaching race rules in his acts of heroism.
• No Mouth: Xenterrans lack mouths and instead feed by telepathically dissociating food into its individual molecules, which they then absorb.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Gamekeeper Kytani's strict adherence to the rules oftentimes gets her into conflict with the racers, even if their defiance was due to some justifiable cause.
• Organic Technology: G'rog's vehicle is the gooey squishy variant while Gnarl's vehicle has more of an exo-skeletal look, combined with lava rocks.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Skrash, a skeletal undead being from a long-extinct species. His skeletal body is kept alive by the planet's Xeno energy, granting him invulnerability and immortality, as well as complete insanity.
• Planet of Hats: Xenterrans are pacifist, enlightened Lawful Neutral scholars, scientists, and engineers. Fyrons are engineers and Gadgeteer Geniuses extraordinaire. Kragnans are arrogant Proud Warrior Race Guys and enslaving, conquering, carnivorous psychopaths.
• Power Floats: Most of the Xenterrans levitate with psychic powers, with Gamekeeper Kytani (an artificially-created Xenterran) being the only one who actually walks.
• Product Placement: In-universe example and Parodied Trope. G'rog is often found promoting (and/or seen drinking) his signature drink, Grogade, the 'fuel of champions'. It's also apparently the Battle-Synth's literal fuel!
• Proud Warrior Race: The Kragnans. They find it disgraceful and humiliating to race for other species' entertainment, but reluctantly agree if only to get their hands on the Xeno energy legitimately.
• Purple Is Powerful: As noted under Amazing Technicolor Population, the Kragnan Empress is a deep purple, and has a fancier design than any other Kragnan, having large horns and golden markings across her torso and body. She rarely does anything beyond instructing her warriors onscreen, but she's vaguely implied to be the brood-queen and mother of the Kragnan species, and every Kragnan seen on-screen treats her with deferential respect.
• Running Gag: Gamekeeper Kytani regularly scolding Ultrox for breaking the rules, even if he's saving her life.
• Save the Villain: In "Power Play", Seadrok kidnaps Skrash to learn how his immortality works. Both Kytani and Ultrox launch a rescue because of how bad it would be if that sort of power was harnessed by a crime boss.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: G'rog rarely shuts up about being the Greatest Athlete in the Universe, and will bring up his accomplishments and victories in any situation they're vaguely relevant. Which tends to be a lot of situations.
• Spikes of Villainy: Skrash and Gnarl, as well as their vehicles.
• Spirited Competitor: G'rog, the galaxy's greatest athlete, who loves (and excels at) every sport and competitive endeavour by the sounds of it, and is always eager to take on new challenges.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The Xenterrans, "oldest and wisest of the races", who posses powerful psychic powers and serve as stewards to the Xeno energy's immense power.
• Super-Soldier: Kreff is explicitly augmented into one at the beginning of "At All Costs", using xeno-energy to enhance his body in every way possible - improved strength, resistance to injury, and Voluntary Shapeshifting being added to his already formidable natural Kragnan abilities and status as the Kragnans' best new-breed warrior.
• Tagalong Kid: Jek, who is initially rescued by Ultrox from Kragnans, while his uncle (who may have been his vaguely implied caretaker) had his brain eaten offscreen by Kragnans pre-series. His parents are never mentioned or shown and he seems to have functionally been adopted by Ultrox (although the show rarely if ever verbally explores their relationship, focusing more on action), and his species' practices and norms where it comes to child-rearing aren't really explored, with it only being mentioned that he is a 'young' Fyron.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Downplayed with Ultrox and Jek. While they usually get on well enough, multiple episodes focus on their falling-outs and conflicts.
• Token Evil Teammate: Skrash, especially when he shows his Hidden Depths of genuinely enjoying racing.
• The Noseless: Ultrox, who otherwise resembles a bald, orange-skinned human.
• Unscaled Merfolk: Seadrok, a gang boss, resembles an octopus-based variant of this trope.
• Used Future: Ultrox's aesthetic and vehicle design.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Ultrox and G'rog are friendly rivals in racing, with G'rog, being one of Ultrox's biggest fans, gleeful at the prospect of beating Ultrox fairly in racing.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Kragnan 'scientist' and elite warrior Kreff gains the ability to change shape at will in "At All Costs", via xeno-energy enhancement and alteration to his body.
• Wacky Racing: A race set on a treacherous alien planet bursting with cosmic energy, where every significant competitor's vehicle is heavily armed and armored enough to functionally amount to an APC? Hell yeah.
• War for Fun and Profit: This is the robot Warcoil's motivation. His company Robocorp deals in weapons, but the advent of Alien Racers means no one will go to war, as all conflict revolves around winning Xeno-cells. Episodes featuring Warcoil have him try to sabotage the Races in some way.
• Worthy Opponent: Gnarl gradually comes to regard his fellow racers with a begrudging respect, while G'rog approaches Ultrox with a casual, flippant, cocky respect (and enthusiasm for 'beating'/competing against him) from the start, which never really changes.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": At the end of the opening three-parter, the vast majority of the Kragnan species is wiped out by a trap Undermaster Akhil deliberately baited them into (and used mind control to force the activation of when the target found out and was on the verge of believing the truth). While Akhil is unambiguously treated by the narrative as a villain, and goes on to further act it for the rest of the series, the Xenterrans in-universe place much more focus on condemning Akhil's (very brief) use of mind control in the final confrontation rather than his deliberate act of indiscriminate mass slaughter and destruction against the Kragnans, and most of the other protagonists react with overall relief at the destruction of the threat. Granted, virtually everything every Kragnan seen onscreen had said or done up to that point was a dog-kick, such as a threat or implication of violence, carnivorization of other sapient species, or colonization and slavery, the Kragnans killed onscreen were all active military forces, and it was heavily implied by Gnarl that most civilian roles under the Kragnan Empire were performed by slaves, but it doesn't change the fact that virtually the entire species was indiscriminately wiped out by Undermaster Akhil's actions.
• Xenomorph Xerox: Downplayed with the Kragnans, as they have the double-mouth arrangement with prehensile clawed tongues behind their primary jaw, heavily weaponized and armored bodies including sharp teeth, brutal mace-tails, and claw-feet that also allow them to crawl on walls and ceilings, while the New Breed can also color-shift to have Chameleon Camouflage. However, they're also unambiguously sapient, being fully capable of speech, and while many use underhanded tactics and ambushes, they're also Proud Warrior Race Guys who will happily openly boast of their superiority and Empire, and take on opponents in direct combat, rather than being purely impersonal, shadow-lurking threats and ambush predators.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Ultrox agrees to participate in the races, Seadrok happily discards his current champion G'rog: literally throwing him out of his ship in low orbit.
• You Killed My Father: Undermaster Akhil's father was eaten by the Kragnans, so he rigs the Xeno Chamber to scan and send out a wave to destroy the Kragnan species when they attempt to steal the command equation that harnesses Xeno Energy.
  Akhil: Let my father be avenged.