Writing for
GamePro, Captain Squideo called
Destruction Derby "the most raucous racing experience of the fall". He believed that its "graphics are almost all you could want for a game" of this type, but wrote that "nothing here stands out as graphically spectacular". He complained that the game does not let players customise cars, and he disliked its lack of split-screen multiplayer. He summarised, "Limited options keep
Destruction Derby out of the winner's circuit, but this rowdy stock-car racer still generates a stadium full of thrashin' fun."
Victor Lucas of
The Electric Playground stated that "the beauty of the game" is the strategy involved in making "calculated strikes" against enemy vehicles, and he wrote, "If you go all out and try to make big noise on the track, more than likely you'll be limping to the scrap yard in seconds." He believed that the game's Stock Car racing mode "is no match for the white knuckle inertia of either
Wipeout or
Ridge Racer", and that the demolition derbies in The Bowl were "most fun to be had" in the game. He praised the game's graphics and physics, and concluded, "
Destruction Derby is a winner in every capacity." A reviewer for
Next Generation remarked that while the game is a straight port of the PlayStation version, it is an impeccably accurate one. He applauded the authentic modelling of vehicle crashes, multiple modes, smoothness of gameplay, and inclusion of both network and modem options, and found the game's only downside is that the camera zooms out so little that it can be difficult to see nearby cars. In a 2023 article by
IGN as part of their '
90s Week, Peer Schneider selected the game as one of three "forgotten launch gems" of the PlayStation, stating "you couldn't ask for a better tech demo to dazzle your friends than showing off 20 cars on screen, peeling out and crashing into each other."
Sales The game sold more than 1 million copies by August 1996. == Sequels ==