Race Tracks That You Can Build On

As far as I know, Hot Wheels doesn't make one like that. The only kind like that I have ever seen, is the wooden Thomas the Train tracks. Some of those flip over to a flat road side. Never thought to look for a race car track like that though! Hopefully somebody out there knows of one?! Did you try googling it maybe? Best of luck!

J., you weren't very specific on what kind of race track you wanted. I assumed you meant cars? Hot wheels has nice tracks and you can sometimes intermix them but they are mostly for what I would deem older kids than yours. I bought Hot Wheels for my son around 4 and that was about 2 years too early.

GeoTrax by Fisher Price was a HUGE hit in my family with the trains and you can mix and match the track any way you can think of. New the sets can get pretty expensive (I should know...I bought every one of them for 3 years running)...but you can find many a good used one these days. I will warn you they initially use a good amount of batteries...the train will use 2 AA and the remote another 4..so invest in good batteries and they won't die as quickly. It also has an auto off if the trains aren't active for a certain period of time so the batteries can last for a long time.

Finally, I don't have the shake n' go car set but my BFF does and my son thought it was pretty cool...the original set that she bought only did a figure 8 so I have no idea if they have expanded upon that but I'm sure a trip to your toy store would solve that fairly quick. The best think about this is it is the perfect mix between Thomas & GeoTrax...it has the larger cars with bright colors and requires NO BATTERIES!!! It's all run by your kids power to shake it.

Thomas the train...well the sets are nice but unless you are finding it used, I wouldn't invest the money. It's terribly expensive and although my kids liked it, they became bored with the simplicity of it...we're just in too much of a tech-saavy kind of world these days. My BFF has all three of these sets (GeoTrax, Shake 'n Go, and Thomas) and I would say her kids play with the GeoTrax MUCH more than any other set they own. Good luck!

I'm just going to ditto the other responses. My son just turned 4yo. We have a Shake and Go set that goes in a figure 8. DH and DS love it. But the biggest hit is the GeoTrax. Some of the tracks even look like road but I haven't ever seen the motorized cars. DS can spend hours building and playing with his GeoTrax.

I don't know about adding on but the new Fisher Price Shake and go Race track has pieces that can be arranged in different ways to make different tracks. My 3 year old has a different Shake and go track so I know it is child friendly. Once the track is together he doesn't need help making the cars go.

sizzlers were the best but not sure if you can find them anymore. I remember my brother having this race trac when he was little and then found one for my son about 7 years ago but seemed they were on clearance to discontinue them so not sure. Unless you have a lot of space for one, I wouldn't recommend one. Even though ours was fun and great, had rechargeable cars and all that, they rarely played with it because we really didn't have the room for something that big. It is sitting at my grandparents empty house right now and thought maybe they would play with it while we go on hunting weekends because there is a lot of room there to play with it but the kids don't even take it out of the box to play with it and even had it set up in one of the empty rooms for a few years and they still didn't play with it while we were there.
Is this a practical toy that will get a lot of use?? or just something the adults think is cool. As for hotwheels, I have yet to see a track that actually does all that it says. we had the carwash set, auto detailing set, and some others, the cars would make the first loop but never made it to the end of any track so always a disappointment. The boys got rid of everything but a few tracks and the shooter section that kicks the car to move and they just use them to shoot the cars across the kitchen floor and have a lot more fun with those few parts of the track and got rid of the rest.

The Geo-Trax (SP) system is wonderful - it's not race cars - but trains - some are battery powered - easy to add on to - lots of affordable add-ons in the $20 range. My grandson who just turned 4 loves it - It's plastic, but holds up very well - can be set up in many different configurations.

Geotrax by Fisher Price is pretty cool. It is large and plastic but once you get a bunch of track your can make all kinds of configurations. The trains can either be pushed or run on remotes. "Santa" found us an entire used set off Craigslist last year for my 4 year old and he still loves it.

Geotrax is great--
I agree don't waste your money on Thomas.
Good Luck

I'd also recommend the geotrax...my husband has fun coming up with different ways to arrange everything. Our 3.5 year old loves them and his brother 16 mos is starting to play too.

You can also find a fair amount on craigslist which will help with the cost.

Have fun!