Spore Crashing at Beginning of Civilization Stage/End of Tribal Stage

I am now at the end of the tribal stage and the beginning of the civilization stage where you build the town hall and vehicle but whenever I get past the vehicle stage of building the game crashes at the loading screen and sends me back to the end of the tribal stage. I've turned all the graphics down and went into window mode. I've even freed some space on my pc. I'm on the steam version of Spore.