with the player driving a white Honda/Acura Integra Type R that sports a unique set of vinyl and a wide body kit.

Samantha is the player's contact in Olympic City, touring them across the import culture scene and illegal street racing therein.

In event #7, she introduces him to T.J., a mechanic who rewards them with numerous performance upgrades and parts, provided they win their time trial challenges.

Eddie is the current best underground racer in Olympic City - unimpressed by the players, he insults them for their racing skills, going as far as demanding they "take a taxi home so that he can get home faster" while throwing cash at their face, and signaling for a taxi cab to pick up the player in an event.

In time, the player develops too much reputation and hype to be ignored by Eddie, who proceeds to challenge them to race Samantha to continue upward in the ranking boards.

The game introduces nitrous oxide for the first time in the series which can be used to boost the acceleration of the car for maximum speed; however, it can only be used once and cannot be used again until the player restarts the race.

Underground is also notable for being the first game in the Need for Speed series to offer a Korean-made car, the Hyundai Tiburon, as a playable vehicle.

[11] The game's soundtrack contains 26 licensed songs, ranging from rap, hip hop, rock, EDM, and drum and bass, performed by artists like Nate Dogg, T.I., as well as Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz (who are best known for performing the game's theme song, Get Low), Petey Pablo, Static-X, Rob Zombie, Lostprophets, The Crystal Method, Junkie XL, Andy Hunter, Asian Dub Foundation and BT (who is best known for producing the game's opening song, "Kimosabe").

Underground features 20 fully customizable licensed Vehicles from thirteen manufacturers, and hundreds of aftermarket parts from no fewer than 52 aftermarket parts manufacturers, including Bilstein, Holley Performance Products, GReddy, Sparco, HKS Power, PIAA Corporation and Enkei.

[12] The game's visual effects was designed under the supervision of Habib Zargarpour, who previously worked on the pod-racing sequence in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

[23] The arcade version was developed by Global VR and published by Konami with assistance from Electronic Arts, released in late 2005.

[52][57] The only complaints critics had were the repetitive tracks, unbalanced rubberband AI, especially in the game's Easy mode, and the lack of free roam and damage in the game, with the latter only confining to detachment of license plates and side mirrors from cars during collisions, especially during Drag races.

Next Generation ranked it as the sixth highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country.