In the game, players take part in illegal street races that focus on different styles of races, utilizing a variety of licensed real-world cars (available at the time of the game's development and release) that can be upgraded and customized with new parts, while contending with the involvement of the police in their efforts to impede the player.

The game operates on the same gameplay mechanics used in previous entries in the series, including its predecessor Most Wanted, though Carbon introduced new elements.

Police pursuits, a staple of the series, function similar to Most Wanted in that police can turn up at any time during a race and attempt to impede the player during the event, except in Canyon Race events and checkpoint races; in Career mode, the police can also turn up during Free Roam, but will not act against the player unless they have a warrant (for evading a previous pursuit) or committed an offence in their sight, whereupon they focus on blocking in and arresting the player unless they can lose them and find a safe spot to hide until they lose their heat.

Licensed real-world cars used in the game are divided into three tiers (performance level) and three classes – Exotic, Tuner, and Muscle.

The city is also surrounded by three canyons known as East, West, and Carbon, which feature their own layout of the route, but which are not connected to Palmont.

However, the racers were ambushed by the Palmont Police Department (PPD), who had SWAT immobilize the player's opponents with an EMP and began arresting everyone involved.

The player escaped with the help of Darius (Tahmoh Penikett), the leader for the Stacked Deck, and his then-girlfriend Nikki (Emmanuelle Vaugier); before leaving she handed over the bag containing the race's prize money, but it turned out to contain paper.

After a long and heated canyon chase, the player's BMW M3 GTR gets totaled, and Cross attempts to arrest them for the 150-thousand-dollar bounty on their head but is paid off by Darius.

In the process, he also engages against Kenji, Angie and Wolf, defeating them and securing a member of their crew to aid them, each of whom confides in the player that they suspect someone else set up both them and each crew member's former bosses as Yumi (Melody), Colin (Steve Lawlor), and Samson (Noah Danby) were all at the race between the player, Angie, Wolf, and Kenji, and each of them saw a vital piece of evidence to confirm the race had been rigged and doomed to an ambush by the PPD all along.

[15] Now aware of the truth, Nikki sides with the player to help take control of the last city borough, leading Darius to reinforce his crew with assistance from Kenji, Angie and Wolf to prevent this.

[17] Need for Speed: Carbon was first shown in EA's montage at Nintendo's E3 2006 conference and booth and was the cover story in the Game Informer magazine issue from July.

Carbon features the Canadian actress and model Emmanuelle Vaugier as Nikki, the player's main source of help and ally in the Career storyline.

[19] Need for Speed: Carbon debuted at number one on the UK All Format Gaming Chart on its first week of release, beating Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer.

[20] Carbon was also the first game in the series to feature detailed character animations for the Windows and seventh-generation releases using facial motion capture, where in-game models of characters such as Neville, Darius, Wolf, Angie and Kenji appear in real-time cutscenes taunting or remarking the player in a race or at certain points.

The Collector's Edition also features alternate box art and a metallic-finish sleeve encasing the case of the game.

The downloaded version of the game features the Ultimate Performance Kit, 2006 Pagani Zonda F and the 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T.

For Tuners, it mostly plays electronica music performed by artists like Gary Numan, Ladytron, The Presets, as well as Melody (who is known for portraying the Bushido crew member Yumi in the game).

For Muscles, they mostly play rock songs performed by artists like Eagles of Death Metal, Wolfmother and Kyuss.

For Exotics, its mostly rap songs performed by Ekstrak, Pharrell, Sway, Spank Rock and Dynamite MC.

The game also has a composed soundtrack performed by Trevor Morris that mostly plays during race sequences and canyon duels.

[43] GameSpot gave praise for adding more movie clips, customization and solid gameplay, but was critical about frustrating boss battles and underutilizing police chases.

[53] Hyper's Daniel Wilks commended the game for its "large gameworld", but criticized it for its easy drift course mechanics and the actors in the cutscenes.

[55] Macworld editor Peter Cohen gave the Mac OS X port four out of five stars, praising the variety of different cars to choose from and engaging storyline.

The player and their brother Mick compete in an illegal street race with two other racers, seeking to see who will own the whole of Coast City amongst them.

The player soon discovers that EX planned Mick's murder, and so pursues after and defeats him, leaving him to be apprehended by MK and the city police.