"Initial D Arcade Stage Ver 3" is a car racing game with 3 different game modes : 'Legend of the Streets', 'Time Attack', and 'The Bunta Challenge!'.

Legend of the Streets : Battle rival characters man to man on 9 different courses. Each checkpoint you pass adds time to the overall time limit. The first one across the finish line with the allotted time wins. If you run out of time or cross the finish line second, you lose. Once you've defeated all 28 rival characters, you'll get a chance to race against a hidden rival character I and a hidden rival character II (final battle/race). Defeat them and you'll race for the title of street legend against the last hidden rival character (special battle/race). Only when the title is yours will you get to see the ending.

Time Attack : This is a race against time. The goal is to cross the finish line as quickly as you can. Direction, Time of Day and Weather can be selected for each of the nine courses - note that Happogahara and Akina (Snow) can only be set to Night. Each checkpoint you pass adds time to the overall time limit. When you cross the finish line, a password is displayed. (The password is not displayed when you don't use the card.) You may use this password to participate in the online Internet rankings. In order to register the password, you must have played the game with a card and you'll need to enter the 3 digit number or KEY printed on the front of the card.

The Bunta Challenge : Race head-to-head against a single rival, Fujiwara Bunta, on eight different courses: Myogi, Usui, Akagi, Akina (Snow on Level 11), Happogahara, Shomaru and Tsuchisaka. For each course, only Dry or Night conditions may be selected.