Need for Speed Carbon Cheats & Cheat Codes for Xbox, PlayStation, and More

Need For Speed Carbon is a 2006 street racing game developed by EA Black Box, and was released for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, PC, and Wii. It came out at a transitional time for gaming, meaning it was a cross-generation title that pushed the boundaries of what the previous consoles could handle. Need For Speed Carbon went on to sell millions of copies worldwide, and spawned a sequel a year later: Need For Speed: ProStreet.

Need for Speed Carbon Premise

In Need For Speed Carbon, you’re a driver on the illegal street racing circuit. You take part in a number of races and challenges that prove you’re the best driver on the block across four game modes: Career, Quick Race, Challenge Series, and multiplayer. In most races you’ll encounter police pursuits, where the police can show up at a moment’s notice and attempt to stop you in your tracks. You must then use abilities like Nitrous Oxide and Speedbreaker to escape.

For most players, Career mode is where you’ll spend most of your time. Here, you compete against rival street racing crews across multiple districts to secure territory for your own crew. As you gain more territory, other crews will attempt to reclaim it in takeover challenges, so it’s a fine balancing act as you move further into the game. The end goal is to capture every single territory in the game.

Customizing your car is one of the biggest features of Need For Speed Carbon, and it’s where the game makes big strides over its predecessor. You choose from a series of licensed real-world cars falling under one of three classes: Exotic, Tuner, and Muscle. Of course, each of these classes have their advantages and disadvantages on the road, and it’s up to you to choose what matters most. Are you after speed, or something that’s a little easier to handle? You can customize a little further, too, by upgrading the individual components of your car and fine-tuning each part. There’s a huge amount of visual customization, meaning no two cars will ever be the same.

Need for Speed Carbon Main Characters

Despite the Need For Speed games being all about high-octane street racing action, they’ve always maintained an underlying element of story tying together each race. Need For Speed Carbon is no different, following on from the plot of Need For Speed: Most Wanted. If you’ve played the previous game, you’ll even meet some familiar faces along the way.

• The Protagonist: You play as an unnamed protagonist in Need For Speed Carbon, who has come to Palmont City with the goal of taking over. Slowly but surely, you begin to defeat each main crew boss, before being betrayed by Darius and handed over to the police. The protagonist then begins a revenge mission against Darius, which takes up the back half of Need For Speed Carbon.
• Nikki: Nikki was the protagonist’s girlfriend before the events of Need For Speed Carbon and now helps them conquer the streets of Palmont City as part of their crew. One of her defining traits is her loyalty, which keeps her by your side until the end.
• Cross: Cross appears across both Need For Speed: Most Wanted and Need For Speed Carbon. In the former, he’s a police sergeant of the Rockport Police Department. In this game he’s a bounty hunter that tries to bring you to justice. Either way, he’s a thorn in your side throughout the story.
• Darius: Darius is the leader of the street racing crew Stacked Deck and the main antagonist of Need For Speed Carbon. He starts as a friendly face, encouraging your progress throughout the game. However, after defeating the three main crew bosses of Palmont City, Darius turns you in to Cross. From here, your motivation becomes centered around defeating Darius and his crew.

Need for Speed Carbon Titles in the Series

Over the years, the Need For Speed franchise has established itself as the king of the street racing genre and continues to release popular titles. There have been some extremely strong contenders to the throne, with Burnout arguably coming the closest to ending its reign. Despite this, the fans have remained loyal, turning Need For Speed into a multimedia franchise with a successful feature film along the way.

• The Need for Speed (1994)
• Need for Speed II (1997)
• Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998)
• Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999)
• Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000)
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (2002)
• Need for Speed: Underground (2003)
• Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004)
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
• Need for Speed: Carbon (2006)
• Need for Speed: ProStreet (2007)
• Need for Speed: Undercover (2008)
• Need for Speed: Shift (2009)
• Need for Speed: Nitro (2009)
• Need for Speed: World (2010)
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
• Need for Speed: Shift 2 – Unleashed (2011)
• Need for Speed: The Run (2011)
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)
• Need for Speed Rivals (2013)
• Need for Speed: No Limits (2015)
• Need for Speed (2015)
• Need for Speed Payback (2017)
• Need for Speed Heat (2019)
• Need for Speed Unbound (2022)

Need for Speed Carbon Cheat Codes

As Need For Speed Carbon was released on so many platforms, it means the game has plenty of different cheat codes for you to enter, with different buttons for each console. While the console cheats are generally the same across the board, you’ll find a lot more versatility in Need For Speed Carbon‘s PC cheat codes, which allow you to do a lot more in-game.

PC Cheat Codes

These cheat codes are exclusive to the PC version, and should be entered in the Main Menu.

• 5grand5grand: Unlocks Castrol Cash
• bigredfiredrive: Unlocks the Fire Truck in Quick Race
• canyonalltheway: Unlocks all tracks
• chasingheadlocksappliedrashtalk: Unlocks the Mazda Dealership
• chasingmobile: Unlocks the Corvette Z06 Interceptor in Quick Race
• cooperlogofreeforyou: Unlocks the Cooper Tire Logo
• friendlyheadlocksapplied: Unlocks infinite speedbreaker
• givemethechargersrt8: Unlocks the 2006 Dodge Charger SRT8
• givemethedb9: Unlocks the 2005 Aston Martin DB9
• guesswhoisback: Unlocks the Cross Corvette Z06 in Quick Race
• inthezoneskin: Unlocks Autozone Vinyl
• lotsoffreelogos: Unlocks Need for Speed Carbon Logo Vinyls
• lotsoffreevinyls: Unlocks Need for Speed Carbon Special Logo
• nosforeverever: Unlocks infinite nitrous
• pharrellvinylgogo: Unlocks the Pharrell Vinyl
• shinycarsarethebestcars: Unlocks Chrome Cars
• slowitdownwhenyouwant: Unlocks enhanced brakes
• speed3foryou: Unlocks the Mazda Speed3 in Quick Race
• syntecskin: Unlocks the Castrol Syntec Vinyl
• trashtalking: Unlocks the Rhino in Quick Race
• watchoutthebigtruckishere: Unlocks the Dump Truck in Quick Race

PlayStation Cheat Codes

On PlayStation consoles, enter these cheat codes at the Main Menu.

• Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Down, Right, Square: Unlocks infinite nitrous
• Down, Right, Right, Left, Right, Up, Down, Square: Unlocks unlimited speedbreaker
• Right, Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Square: Unlocks Need for Speed Carbon Logo Vinyls
• Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Up, Square: Unlocks Cardboard Box and Driver Vinyl
• Down, Up, Up, Right, Left, Left, Right, Square: Unlocks unlimited crew charge
• Down, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up, Square, Triangle: Adds extra cash (can only be used once)
• Up, Down, Left, Down, Right, Up, Square, Triangle: Easy money
• Start Button, Left, Up, Right, Right, Left, Left, Left, Right, X, Circle, Left: Unlocks all cars

Xbox Cheat Codes

Just like the other platforms, these Xbox cheat codes should be entered on the Main Menu.

• Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Down, Right, X: Unlocks infinite nitrous
• Down, Right, Right, Left, Right, Up, Down, X: Unlocks unlimited speedbreaker
• Right, Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, X: Unlocks Need for Speed Carbon Logo Vinyls
• Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Up, X: Unlocks Cardboard Box and Driver Vinyl
• Down, Up, Up, Right, Left, Left, Right, X: Unlocks unlimited crew charge
• Down, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up, X, B: Adds extra cash (can only be used once)

Wii Cheat Codes

You guessed it – enter these at the Main Menu.

• Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Down, Right, 1: Unlocks infinite nitrous
• Down, Right(2), Left, Right, Up, Down, 1: Unlocks unlimited speedbreaker
• Right, Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, 1: Unlocks Need for Speed Carbon Logo Vinyls
• Up(2), Down(4), Up, 1: Unlocks Cardboard Box and Driver Vinyl
• Down, Up(2), Right, Left(2), Right, 1: Unlocks unlimited crew charge
• Down, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up, 1, B: Adds extra cash (can only be used once)

Need for Speed Carbon Cheat Code FAQs

Does Using Need For Speed Carbon Cheat Codes Prevent Achievements?

Yes. While achievements don’t exist in some versions of the game, anywhere you’re able to earn them, you should be careful while using cheats. They do disable achievements for that save file, so you’ll have to start again if you want to earn them again.

It’s not like you’re going to get banned – they’re a feature of the game, but the disabling of achievements is still something to be wary of.

Can I Unlock All Cars With Need For Speed Carbon Cheats?

Sadly this cheat is only available on PlayStation 2 and 3 versions of the game. For some reason, it was never included in the other versions, even though the PC edition which has the most versatile selection of cheats.

For the majority of platforms, you’ll have to earn your Need For Speed Carbon cars the good old-fashioned way: playing the game.

Do Need For Speed Carbon Cheats Work Online?

Nope. The Need For Speed Carbon cheat codes we’ve shown only help in offline game modes, as it would give players an unfair advantage on the race track.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Screenshot from Need for Speed Carbon.