The Raw Thrills development team, led by Eugene Jarvis, was composed of former Midway employees who worked on the Cruis'n series.

The game allows players to customize and upgrade their cars' features, such as spoilers, decals, neon lights, ground effects, and engines, which they must purchase with money earned from races.

The Fast and the Furious was the second title released by Raw Thrills, which had been founded in 2002 by a group of former Midway employees after that company left the arcade market in late 2001.

[7] Reviewing the Arcade1Up version for Popular Mechanics, Hunter Fenollol praised the unit's faithfulness to the arcade original's graphics, sound, and gameplay, and the inclusion of the seven additional tracks from Drift, but expressed disappointment that the selection of cars available was more limited because of licensing issues, and that one could not access all the tracks at the same time.

[11] In 2006, Raw Thrills released an arcade motorcycle racing game, The Fast and the Furious: Super Bikes.

[13][14] The following year, Raw Thrills released an updated edition of the original arcade game, The Fast and the Furious: Drift, partly based on the third film, which featured a new car line-up and added seven new tracks set in Japan.