Hot Wheels: World Race (2003), released for the Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2. Hot Wheels also in the early 1990s introduced a series known as the California Customs. A line of cars that had a California theme. Romano, Sal (February 7, 2023). "Mixed reality racing game Hot Wheels: Rift Rally announced for PS5, PS4, and iOS". Gematsu . Retrieved February 7, 2023. Hot Wheels designer Ryu Asada died on March 23, 2021, at age 42, after years of suffering from cancer. [22] That same year, Hot Wheels began a partnership with Milestone S.r.l. to release their first game, Hot Wheels Unleashed, in which came out on September 30, 2021. Starting in 1970, professional drag racers Don Prudhomme ("The Snake") and Tom McEwen ("The Mongoose") were sponsored by Hot Wheels, and later on, Hot Wheels created the Snake and Mongoose Drag Set in 1970. Later somewhere in 1972, the second versions of both driver's self-titled funny cars were released, when McEwen had the Mongoose 2, and Prudhomme had the Snake 2. The drag set remained the same. Then, Hot Wheels made rail-type dragster versions of them, based on the actual funny cars and was featured in the Wild Wheelie Set. Later in Hot Wheels' lifespan, the normal drag set with Snake and Mongoose were still being produced. The latest set with the Snake and Mongoose is in the Drag-Strip Demons lineup.

Hot Wheels Velocity X (2002), released for the Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2. Since the year 2008, Hot Wheels cars have had a code stamped or printed on the base. This is a "base code". This base code can be used to identify exactly when an individual car was produced in the Hot Wheels factory. The code begins with a letter, followed by a two-digit number. The letter for the year 2018 was "L". The letter is then followed by two numbers, which represent the week of that particular year the car was manufactured. For example, a car with the date stamp of "L42" was produced on the forty-second week of 2018. The Hot Wheels Classics line was an immediate hit with enthusiasts everywhere. The new line focused on muscle cars, hot rods, and other offbeat vehicles (such as a go-kart, a motor home and even an airplane), many from the company's first ten years (1968–78) of production. The series is also used to debut several different castings, such as the 1965 Chevy Malibu or the 1972 Ford Ranchero.In 2009, with no recent developments, the film was put into turnaround, and the rights were handed over to Warner Bros. Pictures. Joel Silver took over producing with Matt Nix writing the script. [38]

Many automobile manufacturers have since licensed Hot Wheels to make scale models of their cars, allowing the use of original design blueprints and detailing. Although Hot Wheels were originally intended to be for children and young adults, they have become popular with adult collectors, for whom limited edition models are now made available. Beam, Jennifer. "Hot Wheels: Jetz - Overview". AllGame. Archived from the original on 2014-11-14 . Retrieved 2016-09-27. In 2006, a Series 3 line of Classics was introduced, again containing 30 models with multiple colors of each vehicle. Models included the '69 Pontiac Firebird, a Meyers Manx dune buggy, and the Richard Petty '70 Plymouth "Superbird". was a very successful year for Hot Wheels, so Mattel came up with a new advertising slogan for the cars: "Go With the Winner". [12] 43 new cars appeared that year, including the Sizzlers and Heavyweights lines. Howard Rees, who worked with Ira Gilford, was tired of designing cars. He wanted to work on the Major Matt Mason action figure toy line-up. Rees had a good friend by the name of Larry Wood, whom he worked with at Ford designing cars. When Wood found out about Hot Wheels at a party Rees was holding, Rees offered him the job of designing Hot Wheels models. Wood accepted, and, by the end of the week, Wood was working at Mattel, where his first design was the Tri-Baby. Larry Wood retired in 2019 after over 40 years of designing cars. On February 18, 2021, the Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover was released; a die-cast scale model latest vehicle in its Space mini-collections inspired by the NASA-launched Perseverance rover. [21]Some cars have 4-digit date codes on the base. These date codes are more specific than the 3-digit codes as they indicate the day a car was made instead of just the week. For the 4-digit codes, the first 3 digits indicate the day of the year and the last digit is the year. A date code of 1987 would indicate the car was made on the 198th day of 2017 (July 17). A code of 0250 would be the 25th day of 2010 (or 2020; depending on the car). Date codes only indicate when a specific car was made. They do not necessarily reflect the model release year of a particular car. Mainline production changes to the next model year right around the middle of the calendar year at the end of June/beginning of July. Premiums and other special series lines often run later in the calendar year before changing production to the next year.

General Motors also released a special Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Edition, which was a blue convertible that offered various Hot-Wheels-themed decorations throughout the car. In 2011, Sizzlers have been re-released as Cars 2 characters, and were sold at Target stores. This line was called Charge Ups and released under the Mattel brand name but not as part of the Hot Wheels line. Skopp, Sam (November 21, 2019). "Relive Your Childhood With Hot Wheels Infinite Loop". The Gamer . Retrieved May 11, 2023.The first line of Hot Wheels Cars, known as The Original Sweet 16 was manufactured in 1967. These were the first of the Red Line Series, named for the tires which had a red pin stripe on their sides. [5] The success of the 1968 line was solidified and consolidated with the 1969 releases, with which Hot Wheels effectively established itself as the hottest brand of small toy car models in the USA. Splittin' Image, Torero, Turbofire, and Twin Mill were part of the "Show & Go" series and are the very first original in-house designs by Hot Wheels. a b Gerber, Alison (November 10, 2014). "Coffee Break Design History: Hot Wheels". Apartment Therapy . Retrieved December 28, 2016. Before 2013, all 12 Treasure Hunt cars of a year were released in both regular and super versions. In 2012, Super Treasure Hunts came with special paint and wheels, but with series designation on the card. However, the regular T-hunts retained a special T-Hunt series card. Mattel stopped using special cards for all Treasure Hunts in 2013. Some U.S. releases in 2014 had the phrase "This symbol on the vehicle lets you know it is hard to find and highly collectible". However, in 2016, this was changed to "Congratulations! This symbol means you just found a collectable treasure-hunt car!". This would be under a silver flame logo on the card for T-Hunts. In 2015, Supers featured a gold logo on the card. Generally, Hot Wheels has targeted both kids and adults with the T-Hunt series, focusing more on the adult collecting market with Supers. Drive Ahead (2015), the mobile game partnered with Hot Wheels in 2019. The update added five new bosses along with new maps and cars only available during the Hot Wheels event. The event concluded later the same year. Developers have stated that there are no current plans to have another Hot Wheels event.