

Once he is hit, the person who tagged him is now it. All the players are trying to "tag," or hit, one player. The Tag game mode is similar to regular tag, but in reverse. The player who accumulates more points will win the match. In Trail Blazer, the players have to follow the trail of an AI-controlled car to accumulate points. Split screen and online multiplayer are also available for the first time in the series with 19 different game modes including trailblazer, tag, sprint GT, cops and robbers, among others. In the Wii version, however, access to the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges are blocked, thus preventing the driver from driving through parts of Marin County and Oakland. Various landmarks are recreated in the game including half of the Bay Bridge and parts of Marin County and Oakland. The game's San Francisco recreation has about 208 miles (335 km) of roads. The game has one of the largest driving environments. The film director mode, which was absent from Parallel Lines, also returns, and players can share their videos on the Driver Club website. Players can also push L1 on the PlayStation 3 or the left shoulder button on the Xbox 360 version of the game to perform a special 'ram' attack on cars. As well as the ability to use Shift, all cars will be equipped with a 'boost' feature, requiring the player to push up on the left thumbstick to use it.

The game is also being described as a "return to the roots" of the series as the ability to get out of the car, which was introduced in Driver 2, has been removed and replaced with the ability to Shift (teleport) into other cars, as the developers felt that too many games have this kind of feature already and "it wasn't desirable to just copy that exact mechanic." With Shift, the player can also start missions. One of the inspirations for Shift comes from Google Earth.

A new feature is Shift, which allows Tanner to teleport from one car to another without discontinuing the mission.
