remember this?
 

my friend here sitting next to me is trying to remember the name of one racing game

[*] it was top-down racer, he says the enviroment and the cars were 3d (but he isn't sure if it was just an effect or it was a real 3d rendered car), but the graphics were kind of shitty

[*] it was probably arcade racing because it had powerups and there were these "jump platforms", when on which you jumped the car came closer to the screen

[*] one of the guys who raced the cars was some kind of crazy sciencist

anyone?

I can't tell you why but it reminds me one of those Kart games made for Nintendo and/or Playstation...maybe Crash Bandicoot in "Crash Nitro Kart"?

http://www.mobygames.com/game/crash-nitro-kart

There was a mad scientist:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/gamebo...ShotId,116375/

That's not top down dude :P

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/excessive-speed

Could it be this? I remember playing a demo of this a lot.

I'm not sure about the mad scientist but it does have quazy 3D graphics.

Right, sorry I didn't read it carefully.

thanks for the suggestions but it's none of them

the excessive speed game is too new.. the graphics resolution is simmilar to crash, if not lower, but it's definitely top down

Do you know if it was a DOS game or a Windows game?

You probably did think of micro machines already, but just checking. YO

How about Overdrive? It is similar to Micro Machines but less famous:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/overdrive/screenshots

nope :( none of these

he says he really thinks it had this primitive 3d engine, like the cars were made out of polygons, but it was all low res and kind of crappy

http://www.mobygames.com/game/window...ShotId,369126/

Ignition, maybe? It's primitive 3D graphics.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/window...ShotId,224794/

Rush Hour is another game that would fit the description.

dude, ignition had awesome graphics. and it's not even top-down=P

and it isn't rush hour neither, the graphics are too good. i think the game was more arcade, since there were jumping platforms