As in previous games within the Ridge Racer series, the gameplay centers on high speed circuit racing featuring "drift" handling, where the player slides the car around turns without great loss of speed.[1] New features in this iteration include car body and engine customization which can affect the performance, handling and nitrous boost system of the car.[2] Ridge Racer 7 also actively encourages players to slipstream other cars, whereas previous iterations did not mention that this technique increases speed.[3]
This game sees the "unlimited restarts" return for the first time since Ridge Racer Revolution in 1996, which means the player can restart during the race (including the regular races and the duel races) at any time. The player can re-play the same race series for more points and money. A global ranking system is used to rank players. It uses a combination of FP (Fame points), CR (Credits, the game's currency) and OBP (Online Battle Points, gained in the online races) to work out an overall number of RP (Ridge Points), which are displayed on the player's Ridge State ID Card.[4][5]