She helps the player buy his first car, although she pokes fun at the player's choice of the car, regardless of the vehicle chosen, saying 'ouch, that's seriously weak, dude'. Samantha is the player's contact in Olympic City and she tours him across the import culture scene and illegal street racing therein. He dominantly wins the race only to be woken up by Samantha from his daydreaming. The player begins the game in a circuit race in Olympic City in a white Honda/Acura Integra Type R, sporting unique vinyls and a wide body kit.

Underground was critically and commercially successful, and was followed by Need for Speed: Underground 2 in 2004. Rather than exotic cars, Underground featured vehicles associated with the import scene. All races take place in the fictional Olympic City. It was the first game in the series to offer a career mode featuring a storyline, and a garage mode that allowed players to fully customize their cars with a large variety of brand-name performance and visual upgrades.

Underground rebooted the franchise, ignoring the previous Need for Speed games which featured sports cars and exotics.

Three different games were produced, one for consoles and Windows, and the other for the Game Boy Advance along with a version developed by Global VR for Arcades that was published by Konami. It was developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. Need for Speed: Underground is a 2003 racing video game and the seventh installment in the Need for Speed series.

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