It definitely creates them, I notice it if I forget that CorelDraw is already open, and open a new window instead of switching to the existing window. The new window detects the autobackup from the first window, and asks if I want to open it.
This is in windows 7.
Today, a few hours ago, I forced a reboot with Ctrl + Alt + Delete. I had no interest in open documents in CorelDRAW (a file that was already saved and the other two were not relevant, so they were still without title). After rebooting, when open CorelDRAW, the program told me to open the three files. I chose "yes" just out of curiosity, and all files were successfully rescued. By the way, I no longer needed the files , so I closed it, but I checked that all changes were auto-saved. This is not the first time it happens, so I can confirm that auto-backup works, and works well. I do not usually force restart the computer often and luckily, CorelDRAW has no crashes although I use it throughout the day. The most common reason for crash is when I tried to open a different file format or damaged file.
I use Windows 7 32 bits under a Core2Duo with 4 Gb RAM