Crash Zone is a simulation of an American demolition derby. The game uses a unique zone based movement system and has card based game play. The objective is simple, crash all the others cars out of the race. The last car running is the winner.
The game is played on a hex board divided into 10 zones. The player manages a hand of 7 cards to drive more aggressively or defensively. On a player's turn, the player first plays driving cards and moves through zones to build momentum. Then, if they end their turn adjacent to an opponent's car they make a hit. The player decides how much momentum to put towards the hit and can then add hit bonus cards. The opponent can then respond with defensive cards and hit bonus cards as well. Damage is then recorded on a player car card. Each player's car damage is hidden by a player screen but visual clues (damage) are placed on the physical car, other player can only see which sections have taken damage but not the amount. The derby cars are wooden game pieces where the 4 corner pieces(driver front, driver rear, passenger front and passenger rear) can be removed and replaced with corresponding damaged piece.