He's the fastest LEGO Racer in all of LEGOLAND who is a LEGO Racing Champion which you, the player, must beat in order to become the new LEGO Racing Champion. He and his partner Veronica Voltage made this great racing tournament because Rocket was bored and had no one to beat him at racing, so they traveled through time to find the best racers for this competition.

In LEGO Racers 2, for some reason Rocket looks upset from the last game in the opening cutscene, which leads me to think he has a big ego. He sees an advertisement for Xalax, a planet populated with racing loving aliens called the Ramas. Rocket races to the warpgate to Xalax and races with the ramas, earning their respect and friendship. Rocket gained a new car and outfit and as a result he hosted a racing challenge across the LEGO universe. That's where you, the player, start off in Sandy Bay and make your way to Xalax to face Rocket Racer.

Like I said, I'm a massive Rocket Racer stan. I thought his original character design was cool, his design screams Y2K aesthetic, which it's a aesthetic I love so much, and the fact he was a badass, cool, dashing, also good looking skilled driver, and he's a fascinating character to me. You could REALLY say he was my biggest confort character as well. Another thing that makes Rocket Racer a redeeming character is that he actually congratulates you when you beat him, he doesn't berate you when you win against him. I think his implied relationship with Veronica Voltage and the player character is cute. Sad thing is while I do like Time Cruisers, Rocket, Veronica, and Professor Voltage would not exist if Time Cruisers lived for the next couple of years but it would be cool to see the Rocket/Veronica couple and Professor Voltage meeting Tim and co. Alright back on topic I like him so much that I made so much fanart of him, as well two spotify playlists, and fan merch of him which you can buy on my Etsy.

FANART MADE BY ME:

In 2018, LEGO finally brought back Rocket Racer as the Race Car Driver in Collectable Minifigures 18, though it's not clearly stated it's him, one source confirms that he is Rocket. Then finally in 2021 Rocket Racer came back as a stunt performer appearing in the show, LEGO City Adventures in the episodes, Stunt City, Of Dads and Dudes, Ramping Up, Give 'Em A Handand and in the Commercials: Your City, No Limits.

Okay the outfits for modern Rocket are nice though, at least one of them is faithful to his original outfit, at least Carlos Alazraqui did a decent performance than Dave Lamb who by the way voiced Rocket Racer in queue animations for the now retired Rocket Racers ride (More like a arcade game if you ask me), Also I like the idea that his real name is Ricky (short for Richard), well there's three things I have to gripe about modern Rocket:

1. The writers of LEGO City Adventures did not do any justice to Rocket's personality. But to be fair, the writers were only given the character and that's it, no history for him which I believe why in the show they didn't mention his history as a racer. Rocket in the show is portrayed as the calm brainiac of the Stuntz team. I thought this was out of character for him, but luckily in the recent commercials they restored his original personality.

2. Why the brown slick hair? Then this could be me being biased to LR1 Rocket, but when I look at his hair print on his original design, I get the impression that his hair is messy. No offense Austin William Carlson, this what I think what Modern Rocket should look:

So I found out that Modern Rocket's haircut was supposed to be inspired by Billy Campbell's character, Cliff Secord in the 1991 film: The Rocketeer: (See Trivia). So I guess Austin William Carlson took this inspiration when redesigning Rocket Racer

3. Why a Stunt Performing career? I get that Racers is dead now, but it's in his name, but I also get that Rocket was supposed to retire after the original LEGO Racers game. But luckily he's in LEGO 2K Drive, a racing game which I may do my thoughts on.

Rocket was originally going for the steampunk/retro futuristic aesthetic and he was originally going to be inspired by The Rocketeer.