The popular Burnout series returns to its roots with Burnout Dominator. Unlike the previous two iterations, in which gameplay was centered on spectacular crashes, Dominator encourages racers to merely push to the brink of complete disaster rather than go over the edge, and it offers a reinvention of the long lost burnout as a reward. Not seen since 2003's Burnout 2: Point of Impact, burnouts are the result of using an entire boost meter at once. Chaining burnouts together is the primary way to score points in a number of game modes, and courses have been designed specifically to handle the tremendous speed of multiple burnouts in a single race.

Though the importance of crashing has been toned down a bit in Dominator, reckless driving is still more than encouraged, as evidenced by the return of road rage mode in which gamers are encouraged to take down opponents by slamming them into other vehicles and environmental objects. Similarly dedicated to dangerous driving is the new maniac mode that awards points for speeding through oncoming traffic, drifting through corners with reckless abandon, and chaining burnout after burnout together. Also new is the signature shortcut feature that rewards racers for sending opponents careening into barriers that conceal alternate routes.

Burnout Dominator features a mostly new roster of vehicles with an emphasis on American and European cars. Many of the more unusual hotrods from previous Burnout games have returned and a whole new group of classic cars has been added. Gamers can unlock vehicles in single-player world tour mode by winning races, racking up points, and completing tasks like drifting a specific distance. Multiplayer options include split-screen support for two players and a party mode that lets up to four players take turns competing in the same event.