Pocket Racer

Players choose a course, a car, a transmission (automatic or six-speed manual), and a song. The cars' specifications vary: some have a high top speed, others have better acceleration or handling, and some present a balance of the three. Certain cars are named after other Namco games such as Solvalou, Mappy, Bosconian, Nebulasray, and Xevious. The racetrack can be observed from a first-person perspective or, for the PlayStation version, from a third-person perspective.

Namco's NeGcon controller can be used to play the game. Because Ridge Racer is an arcade-style racing game, collisions cause no damage, and merely slow the player down. There is a time limit, which ends the race if counted down to zero.

At the Japan Amusement Machinery Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) 1992 Amusement Machine Show (AM Show) in Japan, held during 17–19 August, Namco debuted a racing game called SimRoad or Sim Drive for the Namco System 22 arcade system board. It was a sequel to Eunos Roadster Driving Simulator, a Mazda MX-5 driving simulation arcade game that Namco developed with Mazda and released in 1990. Its 3D polygon graphics stood out for the use of Gouraud shading and texture mapping. After a location test at the show, where it was previewed in the November issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, SimRoad had a limited Japanese release in December 1992, but did not get a mass-market release. It served as a prototype for Ridge Racer.

Ridge Racer had a development cycle of eight months. The development team was under pressure to complete it before their rivals, and designer Fumihiro Tanaka commented that "the other company" (Sega) was in the same position. Ridge Racer was originally planned to be an F1 racing game, but the concept was replaced with one based on a trend among Japanese car enthusiasts at the time. Namco Bandai's general manager, Yozo Sakagami, explained that they liked racing on mountain roads and did not want to slow down around corners, so drifted around them instead.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Ridge Racer as the most successful upright/cockpit arcade game of November 1993. It went on to be the highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1994 in Japan. In North America, Play Meter listed Ridge Racer as the third most popular arcade game in February 1994. In the United Kingdom, it was London's top-grossing arcade game in early 1994.

Upon release in arcades, Ridge Racer received critical acclaim, particularly for its graphics and sound. Following its AM Show demonstration in August 1993, Edge magazine said that the game's custom-designed real-time texture mapping and rendering system pumps out the most photorealistic image ever seen in the arcades. He also said that Namco managed to put Virtua Racing from Sega firmly in the shade with the release of own title. RePlay magazine praised the graphics, calling it "the first" video game with "next-generation computer texture-mapping" graphics.