Set in a world involving off-road racing, four racers drive their vehicles as they compete against on another in a long range of tracks as woman in revealing attire wait for them at the finish lines with losers tasting the dirt and a computer winning will eat one credit from the player.
Succeeding in the race will win more funds for improving the player's vehicle in various manners such as their greatest speed, better grips, and more acceleration while the player should keep their nitro boosts in top form while spare credits can be used by desperate players to improve vehicles.
The game received a sequel exclusive to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System titled Super Off Road: The Baja. Unlike the first game's bird's eye perspective, this one takes on a behind-the-truck view as you drive through a three-dimensional environment, and is themed around the Baja 1000 endurance race instead of the first game's arena-based dirt tracks. The cash-based upgrade system from the first game returns.
Tropes:
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The three trophy ladies at the Speed Shop. Player 1 has a blonde in a blue bikini or evening gown (the game has the option of having the ladies in either conservative evening gowns or skimpy bikinis), player 2 has a brunette in a red bikini/gown, and player 3 has a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead in a green bikini/gown.
- Bowdlerize: In some console and handheld ports, the bikini-clad women are redrawn to wear dresses instead. In the Sega Master System version, they wear one-piece bikinis. In the SNES port, they don more modest civillian attires.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: Player one controls a red truck (or optional dune buggy if they play the Track Pak version), player two controls a yellow truck, and player three controls a blue truck. The AI-controlled truck of "Ironman" Ivan Stewart (or "Lightning" Kevin Lydy in current re-releases) is white, though it appears gray due to graphical limitations. The NES version had a green truck in place of the white truck if four human players compete.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Abused to a bizarre end in the Super Nintendo game Super Off-Road: The Baja. Each and every one of your competitors had their own preferred place in the lineup, and Heaven forbid you should attempt to take that place from them. For example: Should you take third place from the AI driver who typically came in third, he would become a super driver fueled by rage; he would gain speed, cut corners, ram your truck mercilessly, and pretty much suddenly become the Uberdriver in his efforts to dislodge you from third place. Once you dropped back to fourth place, though, that driver would return to normal, and never challenge Mr. Number Two for HIS place. (Of course, then Mr. Fourth Place would have his turn at harassing you.) Coupled with the tendency for the AI in first place to absolutely obliterate you should you dare violate his sacred position AND stage last-minute comebacks at speeds approaching those of a low-flying jet fighter, winning any race at any difficulty level became far more based on luck (and your ability to keep from being rammed into oblivion) than skill.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: In the Super NES version, the girl by the yellow-clad racer donned a dress with a neckline that plummets beneath her shoulders.
- Ms. Fanservice: The nameless females are decently shaped and wear a variety of revealing outfits with the most revealing they get being bikinis.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: The woman standing by the third-place racer on the podium dons a one-piece attire that bares her cleavage and goes straight down beneath her navel.
- Shifting Sand Land: The Camalu, El Arco, and Guerrero Negro tracks in The Baja have you driving across sandy roads in the desert while avoiding crashing into cacti.
- Sideboob: Some of the women wear bikinis that show off the sides of their bust.
- Stock Money Bag: You can earn bonus cash by collecting a large sack with a dollar sign on it that sometimes appears on the track.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: In the original arcade and most ports, the main girls at the pit stops are dressed in bikinis of various colors. In the Sega Master System version, while less revealing, they dress in one-piece swimwear.
- A Winner Is You: The final ending you get for clearing all the races in The Baja is a single image of your racer holding a large trophy over their head with the word "congratulations" underneath, followed by your overall time across all the races being added to the high score table.
