Team Sonic Racing may not had did well but the cars are still popular and better looking than these ugly cars.
Or they could of at least designed a toy that looks like Sonic while he's running... and not look like he was ran over.
Don't believe me? Check out Jakks Pacific Die-cast car toys.
While these Jakk Pacific toys are not made by HotWheels nor made from the usual metals HotWheel cars are made from, the plastic is still sturdy and they still fit perfectly on official Hotwheels tracks means you can play with them with your HotWheels sets. And IMHO the fact these toys tried to be as accurate to the cars from Team Sonic racing look much more appeal than HotWheels cars that simply have bare resemblence to characters heads.
Price is the issue, the more complex the design, the more expensive they were.
I don't know in western, but in Asia and Japan HotWheels usually are cheap and could be found in mini market or local store, or even on the road.
Jakk Pacific toys are expensive here, sold only in toys store, we won't find them in mini market or local store.