Race Driver took the game in a new direction, since the main game mode featured a plot (leading to the game being labelled as a "Car-PG") where the player would take on the role of a fictional race driver called Ryan McKane, trying to make a name for himself in a multitude of car championships, all the while under the shadow of his more successful older brother and haunted by the death of his father on the racetrack (as witnessed by Ryan as a child).

The real-life championship had undergone a transformation after most of the manufacturers had pulled out, and crowd numbers dropped, so TOCA asked Codemasters to include the series to boost the audience interest.

The game continued with random grid positions and no penalties for bad driving.

[34][35][33] In the UK, Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine gave the PS2 version a score of eight out of ten and said that it was an "ultra-realistic racer with top visuals";[36] they also listed it in their top 100 games and awarded it a Bronze Medal.

A sequel, TOCA Race Driver 2 was released in April 2004 for Windows and Xbox and later for PlayStation 2 in October 2004.