Hard Drivin' is a 3D racing game from Atari Games. You are in control of a high-performance sports car. Your objective is to race around the course as fast as possible and hit as many checkpoints as possible. If you hit a checkpoint, you gain extra time to go farther. You will see traffic on the road both in your direction and coming down the opposite direction, so be careful when you pass.
The game has two sections: speed track and stunt track. The speed track is longer, but you can usually achieve higher speeds. The stunt track requires you to perform several stunts such as jumping bridges, driving through a loop, and so on.
Crashing the car has no serious consequences and indeed shows a replay of your crash from a cinematic angle. You lose several seconds as your car is "reset" and you get up to speed again.
The home conversions retain most of the then-advanced 3D graphics but lack the force-feedback that was in the arcade version.