Daytona USA was developed by AM2 after a meeting of the heads of Sega's regional offices to decide on a game to debut the Model 2 hardware.

Daytona USA was a critical and commercial success, with its graphics, soundtrack and gameplay all receiving high praise.

[16] In September 1992, Sega partnered with the engineering division GE Aerospace to create its new arcade system board, the Model 2.

At the second meeting, GE Aerospace executives brought a tape demonstrating the hardware's 3D graphics simulating the Daytona International Speedway.

GE estimated that their sale of the Model 2's graphics technology accelerated Sega's arcade hardware development by 14 months.

[2][17] The heads of Sega's regional offices began discussing ideas for games to demonstrate the Model 2's capabilities.

To lower costs, Sega decided not to negotiate with NASCAR for a license, and so the game does not contain real sponsors, drivers, or cars.

[2] Sega mandated that Daytona USA had to be better than Namco's 1993 racing game Ridge Racer and it had to achieve higher sales.

[2][18] Ridge Racer had reached the top of arcade sales charts at the end of 1993 and beginning of 1994,[19][20][21] and it had received highly favorable reviews of its graphics, especially in comparison to Virtua Racing.

[24] As research for the project, Nagoshi read books and watched videos on NASCAR, although he found it difficult to convey the emotions of the sport to his staff in Japan.

Game planner Makoto Osaki said he purchased a sports car and watched the NASCAR film Days of Thunder more than 100 times.

[4] The developers used satellite imagery and sent staff to photograph Daytona International Speedway;[2][8] Nagoshi walked a full lap to get a feel for the banking in the corners.

According to Nagoshi, because Daytona USA was not intended to be a simulation game, and because it would be sold in Japan and Europe in addition to North America, the oval and tri-oval designs were rejected as too repetitive.

[4] Suzuki also reached out to Sega designer Jeffery Buchanan, who suggested placing interesting features, such as a dinosaur fossil and a clipper ship, at various locations within the game.

[18] "Let's Go Away", the Daytona theme, uses a mixture of rock and funk instrumentals,[25] while "Sky High" leaned on Mitsuyoshi's background in jazz fusion.

[18] For the arcade version, the songs were sampled onto a Yamaha sound chip, including the drums and Mitsuyoshi's voice, then reconstructed by varying when the tracks would play and loop.

Prior to release, Sega debuted a prototype of Daytona USA at the Amusement Machine Show in Tokyo in August 1993,[27][28] and it was tested in select Japanese arcades the same month;[4][29] Petit stated that this was done to measure how the games would be received by the public.

[4][46] It operates on Sega's RingWide arcade system board and features high definition graphics and an arranged instrumental soundtrack.

[85] Retro Gamer's Nick Thorpe said that though Daytona USA is considered anecdotally one of the most successful arcade games for its multiplayer and longevity, exact figures were difficult to find.

[55] Also highly regarding Daytona USA's graphics were Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), which asserted that "the stakes in the arcade wars have been raised again",[10] and GamePro's Manny LaMancha, who argued that Daytona USA is a combination of Virtua Racing's action with Ridge Racer's realism.

[4] Maximum highly regarded the challenging course design and realistic game mechanics, particularly the impact of wind resistance, but criticized the low-resolution graphic texture mapping, clipping, and lack of multiplayer.

[56] By contrast, a reviewer for Sega Saturn Magazine found the game graphically impressive aside from the pop-up and asserted it had strong arcade-style gameplay,[76] and one from Next Generation argued that, while "Daytona USA suffers from an accumulation of weaknesses, if it's a fast, thrilling racing game you're after, the Saturn conversion has a great deal to recommend".

[14] While Air Hendrix of GamePro concluded Daytona USA's "intense gameplay and breathtaking graphics will exhilarate any racing fan" and had positive feedback for the additions of Saturn mode and mirror mode, he argued it "pales in comparison" to the PlayStation version of Ridge Racer in terms of "features, gameplay, and graphics".

[86] Thorpe wrote that Daytona USA "doesn't just stand alongside the likes of Turbo, Out Run, Super Monaco GP and Sega Rally as part of a proud arcade racing heritage, but perhaps defines it".

Justin Towell of GamesRadar+ regarded Daytona USA as "a joyous, jubilant celebration of everything that made arcade games so exciting" and the new survival mode "a brilliant test of memory, logic and dexterity".

[16] By contrast, Eurogamer's Martin Robinson asserted that "age doesn't seem to have ravaged Daytona USA's core" and wrote that the game serves as "fitting tribute to one of arcade racing's enduring icons".