[1] The game's races take place in a number of settings around the world, consisting of Australia, Kenya, Japan, Italy, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

[6] Certain bikes are equipped with a series of nitrous oxide charges, which can provide a burst of speed if the player quickly taps the acceleration input button twice.

The bike will be wrecked if the meter fully depletes, which ends the player's participation in the current race and deducts the cost of a repair bill from the racer's balance.

Motor officers make sporadic appearances throughout the game's tracks, and can also end the player's participation if they apprehend the racer following a crash, which deducts the cost of a fine from their balance.

[6] Upon the completion of Road Rash II, series co-creator and programmer Dan Geisler planned to leave EA and accepted an employment offer from Crystal Dynamics; he was primarily motivated by inadequate compensation for his work on the first two titles, and he felt that the technology for the Genesis had been pushed as far as it could.

[2] Artist Michael Hulme was recruited from Cinemaware for the game's development team, and was told that Road Rash 3 would be EA's final title for the Sega Genesis.

[11] A promotional sweepstake was run by GamePro and Best Buy the following month, in which contestants who filled and mailed an entry form were eligible to win a grand prize consisting of an all-expenses-paid trip for the winner and a guest to San Francisco in June to see a concert performance by Monster Magnet, one of the featured bands in the 3DO and Sega CD versions of Road Rash.

Bacon of GamePro voiced approval for the game's variety of weapons and tracks, and said that the tight controls complemented the bike-upgrading feature, though he criticized the unwieldy weapon-cycling mechanic, and felt that the two-player mode, while faster and more fluid than that of Road Rash II, was still twitchier and less responsive than the single-player campaign.

He noted the enhanced realism of the visual details and scenery and the slickness of the sprites, but criticized the music as "annoyingly peppy" and described the sound effects as "often silly".

[15] Gus Swan and Steve Merrett of Mean Machines Sega considered Road Rash 3 to be the fastest and most refined installment of the series, but also dated in comparison to Ridge Racer and Daytona USA, and they cited EA's previous title Skitchin' as a more effective and original take on the formula.

Although they acknowledged the increased crispness and size of the graphics and the variety of the audio, Merrett saw the colors as "dreadfully washed out", and they derided the music as "sad Megadrive metal for people with acne and Bon Jovi T-shirts".

[23] A reviewer for Next Generation applauded the game's inclusion of the animations and track layouts of the acclaimed 3DO version of Road Rash, as well as the new weapons and bike enhancer mode.