A sequel to Ridge Racer, it features more quality-of-life changes than substantial new content.

[4] There also are six new songs, including remixed ones from the original, that can be selected with the gear shifter at the start.

The enormous television screen above the entrance to the first tunnel shows footage from Namco's 1979 title Galaxian (in the original, it was playing Mappy).

[8] Play Meter also listed the title to be the thirty-seventh most-popular arcade game at the time.

[9] Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "eight-user multi-player link-up has been added to enable Ridge Racer 2 to compete on equal footing with Sega's Daytona USA and Namco's new Ace Driver.