The game follows a similar theme with the earlier and far better-known Sega Model 3 arcade racer Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders, where you race around in Harley-Davidsons. However unlike Sega's game, Race Across America takes players to a cross-country tour around the United States to Sturgis
, a town best known for its annual motorcycle rally. The game pits players either against computer-controlled opponents—both in Practice Mode and Tour Game (which amounts to the game's main mode)—or via networked multiplayer, and employs a number of motorcycles from the company at the time of the game's release, from the Twin Cam-powered Dyna Low Rider to the 1956 KHK.
A separate version of the game for the Game Boy Color was developed by Running Dog and released in 2000. Race Across America was later followed by Harley-Davidson: Wheels of Freedom, also released in the same year.
This game provides examples of:
- Badass Biker: The player characters, though there's also a token female biker thrown in.
- Bland-Name Product: The "67" gas stations are quite obviously a dig on the 76 service stations with its iconic orange logo.
- Bottomless Fuel Tanks: Averted for the most part as the bikes run on finite gasoline, with the Sportster having the worst fuel economy. The fuel mechanic is so broken that it disrupts the flow of the race, forcing everyone to head through the nearest station or muddle their way through once fuel runs out. Fortunately, there's either a cheat that plays the trope straight or the unlockable KHK Classic.
- Cool Bike: Considering how this is a Harley-Davidson game and all.
- Eagleland/Patriotic Fervor: More or less subdued as there's not much in the way of exceptional American symbolism apart from one of the player characters wearing a denim top with the Stars and Stripes emblazoned on the back. It also goes with the game's presentation lacking options for metric units.
- Obfuscated Interface: As what the IGN review noted when they opined how Canopy Games' sole programmernote did not take the game's supposed target audience (read: Harley-Davidson riders and/or their children) into account as online and/or LAN multiplayer would be a chore to mess with, if there's anyone else halfway across the world or somewhere else in the States who plays the game at all. The configuration menu also passes off as rather cryptic to the average computer user; pity the poor soul who selects "Software Emulation" and ends up playing the game at slideshow frame rates.
- Marathon Level: Especially with the Tour Mode as it takes well over five minutes to complete one stage on average.
- Product Placement: In addition to billboards for various bikes from the MoCo at the time, ads for entries in the Deer Hunter series and Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter can also be seen.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: While there is a female character model, she is there merely to give players a choice and doesn't play any differently from the others.
- Shout-Out: A parody of the Burma-Shave ads can be seen in the Arizona level.
- Stock Footage: The cutout crowd at the finish line was taken off the Biker's Choice apparel catalogue.
