Dirt Rally is a racing video game focused on rallying. Players compete in timed stage events on tarmac and off-road terrain in varying weather conditions. On release, the game featured 17 cars, 36 stages from three real world locations – Monte Carlo, Powys and Argolis – and asynchronous multiplayer.[5] Stages range from 4 to 16 km. Subsequent updates added three more locations in the form of Baumholder, Jämsä and Värmland, as well as rallycross and player versus player multiplayer modes.[6] Codemasters announced a partnership with the FIA World Rallycross Championship in July 2015,[7] leading to the inclusion of the Lydden Hill Race Circuit (England), Lånkebanen (Norway), and Höljesbanan (Sweden) to the game.

Dirt Rally features a large number of vehicles in a wide variety of classes, and 16 manufacturers. It contains cars from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, Group B, Group A, Group R, 2000s and 2010s modern rally, Rallycross and Pikes Peak, with cars having up to 10 liveries.

In terms of image quality, a full 1080p resolution is delivered on both PS4 and Xbox One, with post-process anti-aliasing, along with matching art and effects work, whereas the PC version includes Steam Workshop that consists of preset setups made from each vehicles by users that helps benefit races from different terrains from different tracks (though the game holds up to 100 mods as subscribing to more than 100 mods will not function).