Ridge Racer Turbo

Players choose a course, a car, a transmission ( automatic or six-speed manual ), and a song. The cars' specifications vary: some have a high top speed, others have better acceleration or handling, and some present a balance of the three. Certain cars are named after other Namco games such as Solvalou , Mappy , Bosconian , Nebulasray , and Xevious . The racetrack can be observed from a first-person perspective or, for the PlayStation version, from a third-person perspective .

Namco's NeGcon controller can be used to play the game. Because Ridge Racer is an arcade-style racing game , collisions cause no damage, and merely slow the player down. There is a time limit, which ends the race if counted down to zero. A single course is featured comprising four configurations of increasing difficulty: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Time Trial (the latter two are extended).

The player races eleven opponents except in Time Trial, where there is only one. The greater the difficulty, the faster the cars run; Time Trial is the fastest. Each race consists of three laps (two on the beginner course). Checkpoints that grant additional time when passed through are present throughout.

In the PlayStation version, after every race is won, reversed ones become available, and an additional opponent is encountered in Time Trial: the 13th Racing (also known as the "Devil" car), the fastest car. On winning, the car is unlocked. The PlayStation version features a hidden "mirror" version of the tracks. It becomes a "mirror image" of itself; left turns become right turns and vice versa, and the surroundings switch sides of the road.

In the arcade version, the winning player's score is saved in action-replay highlights after finishing the game. In the PlayStation version, a mini-game of Galaxian can be played as the game loads. If won, eight additional cars become available. Once the game has loaded, the CD is only needed to play six music tracks.

The disc can be replaced during gameplay, although the game does not update; regardless of what disc is inserted, there will always be six tracks, corresponding to the starting points of the tracks on the game disc.