Need for Speed Most Wanted challenges you to be the most infamous and elusive street racer by fusing the excitement of illegal street racing and tuner customization with the tension of planned police chases that equal any Hollywood-style chase scene.

The ninth entry of the Need for Speed video game franchise, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, was released in 2005. Published by Electronic Arts, the game was created by EA Canada and EA Black Box.

In Need For Speed: Most Wanted, you compete in illegal street races all across the setting of Most Wanted, using a range of licensed real-world cars that may be modified and customized with new components, all while fighting with the engagement of the police in their efforts to stop you.

Racing events include checkpoint, sprint, and drag races in addition to competitive racing throughout circuit or point-to-point races. Three play modes are available in the game: Career, Quick Race, and Challenge Series.

There are several different stock vehicles available in the game, and you may upgrade each one during the career mode to improve both its performance and appearance.

There are also other cars that may be used, the majority of which are obtained from the game's Blacklist Racers or unlocked after beating one, while some are rewarded for completing challenges.

Like the Underground series, Most Wanted refrains from using significant car damage on any of its racing models; instead, it only simulates minor paint scratches and severely broken windshields. Contrarily, police cars are severely damaged when struck by your vehicle or when it hits other vehicles or obstacles.

Nitrous Boosts may be used to assist you to get an advantage over rivals during races in the game's Career mode. You can also activate Speedbreaker, a second ability, to assist you in difficult circumstances. When used, the ability slows down time, causes drift, and briefly increases the vehicle's weight to make it more difficult to push about. This lets you get your car out of problematic scenarios.

The goal of the game's primary mode is to compete in races against all of the top street racers, or Blacklist Racers, in the region.

Before choosing a car to use for the rest of the game, you must first finish a tutorial sequence of activities to orient you to the game.

You must fulfill the events and Milestones related to each Blacklist Racer before taking them on. After that, you must defeat the racer in a series of subsequent races.

The player can acquire extra vehicles and upgrade components as well as two awards from Blacklist Racers after defeating them, in addition to the next opponent, a new set of events, and new Milestones are available for you.

In Quick Race mode, you may choose any event, any car, and whether to set your own custom event settings or let the game generate a random set of event parameters for you. Your success in the game's Career mode will determine how many events and vehicles are available to you.

In the Challenge Series mode, you participate in a chain of events released one after another. About half of them are checkpoint races, while the remaining ones are a mix of pursuit events similar to the Milestone events in Career Mode. For each event, you must fulfill the objective of driving a certain vehicle along a particular route.