The game features three modes of play - Career, Quick Race, and Challenge Series - with a fourth mode allowing for multiplayer being available to players on certain console editions. Racing events feature a mixture of competitive racing across circuit or point-to-point races, and checkpoint, sprint and drag races. In the game, players take part in illegal street races across Most Wanted 's setting, 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.

1.3 Quick Race, Challenge Series and multiplayer.

A reboot of the game, developed by Criterion Games, was released in October 2012. The game was later succeeded by Need for Speed: Carbon in 2006, which provided a sequel to Most Wanted 's story, with a virtual edition being made available for PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Store in May 2012, until it was discontinued the following year.

Its success later led to a collector's edition, Black Edition, which provided additional content for the game. Upon its release, the game received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success, selling 16 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best entries in the series as a result. Certain editions of the game were also packaged with the ability for online multiplayer gaming. Most Wanted brought in many notable improvements and additions over other entries in the series, its major highlight being more in-depth police pursuits. The game focuses on street racing-oriented gameplay involving a selection of events and racing circuits found within the fictional city of Rockport, with the game's main story involving players taking on the role of a street racer who must compete against 15 of the city's most elite street racers to become the most wanted racer of the group, in the process seeking revenge against one of the groups who took their car and developing a feud with the city's police department. An additional version, Need for Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0, was released in the same year for PlayStation Portable. Developed by EA Canada and EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts, it was released on November 11, 2005, for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance and Xbox 360. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a 2005 open-world racing video game, and the ninth installment in the Need for Speed series.

Need for speed most wanted 2005