The player not only has to race against other cars, trying to outrun them, he can also use various kinds of weapons and gadgets to damage his opponents.

In the beginning of the game, the player can choose one of the eight available characters: Jackyl, Sadie, Ray, Mekmac, Metro, Growl, Mama, and Andrew. Each character has his/her own strengths and weaknesses (speed, car handling, etc.), as well as unique weapons. The weapons include a shotgun, glue spots that they can leave to slow other cars, homing missiles, mines, and others. There are 24 different tracks available in the game. The player must complete them in a linear fashion, and once he/she runs out of time or fails a single race, the game is over and the player must enter his/her name onto the Scoreboard, the background being the type of environment the last race took place. The player's score is measured by the amount of money that they have acquired in races you have placed in. As the player spends this money on upgrades for his/her vehicle, the score suddenly lowers.

Combat Cars lacks a real ending; once the player complete the last race, he/she is promptly brought to the Scoreboard and the game resets to the SEGA introduction screen.

Name	Age	Sex	Race	IQ	Car	Weapon
Jackyl	34	Male	Human	128	Moentrax P12	Oil dumper
Sadie Marks	19	Female	Human	133	Mantra X202	Glue globs
Ray Shades	22	Male	Human	112	Setro M42	Boost device
Mekmac	41	Male	Biomech	21	Monster 78 GSM	Army mines
Metro 1200	Unknown	Unknown	Cyborg	206	Tailormade	NXP shotgun
Growl	62	Male	Tordor	88	Mole v2.3	Thick smoke
Big Bad Mama	48	Female	Human	80	Cupcake Model B	Hydro boost
Andrew Alien	340	None	Costan	864	Zephyr-Z	Homing missiles