Crash did not really do anything weird with the CD drive, it just read from the disc a lot. So much, in fact, that a single playthrough would hit the disk more times than the drive was rated for (the drive was rated for some 70000 reads, but completing the game required something like 120000). [1]

[1] http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/02/06/making-crash-ban...