If you have any track in the project “disabled” (using the new “Disable Track” feature in Cubase 8), it will cause this crashing.
Btw, Steinberg mods, my issue in link above has been flagged as being a “duplicate” of the render-in-place crash. I don’t think it’s the same thing. I think it deserves its own tracking number (please see my original post above and consider categorizing it as an official bug, in its own right).